LA 
216 

M47 


Ministry  of  Education 
in  the  South. 


BY 

REV.    A.    D.    MAYO. 


Ministry  of  Education 
in  the  South. 


BY 

REV.  A.    D.    MAYO, 


BOSTON 

PRESS  OF  GEO.  H.  ELLIS,  141  FRANKLIN  STREET 
1889 


A  MINISTRY  OF   EDUCATION  IN  THE   SOUTH. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  year  of  our  Ministry  of  Educar 
tion  in  the  Southern  United  States,  we  respond  to  inquiries  for 
information  in  regard  to  the  character  and  present  condition  of 
the  work,  too  numerous  to  be  answered  by  personal  interview, 
correspondence,  or  occasional  statements  through  the  press.  The 
sole  object  of  this  publication  is  to  furnish  reliable  information 
concerning  our  ministry  in  the  North  and  South,  especially  to 
serve  as  a  fit  introduction  in  portions  of  the  country  not  yet  vis- 
ited. The  testimonials  from  prominent  public  men  and  leading 
educators  of  all  the  Southern  States  are  only  a  selection  from  a 
mass  of  similar  material,  and  give  a  fair  account  of  the  estima- 
tion in  which  the  Ministry  is  held  where  it  is  best  known. 

It  is  our  intention  to  supplement  this  pamphlet  by  the  repub- 
lication  of  a  number  of  addresses,  delivered  on  different  occa- 
sions, in  various  portions  of  the  country,  bearing  on  this  work. 
The  wide  distribution  of  such  publications  and  the  constant  use 
of  the  press  have  been  among  the  most  effective  agencies  of  the 
Ministry.  It  is  our  pleasure  to  acknowledge,  here,  the  great  kind- 
ness of  the  leading  Southern  press,  from  the  first,  in  heartily  co- 
operating with  our  work  during  the  past  ten  years. 


In  the  year  1862,  we  accepted  a  call  to  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  of  the  Redeemer,  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  remained  in 
that  city  ten  years,  till  1872.  In  addition  to  the  laborious  charge 
of  a  growing  church,  we  served  as  a  member  of  the  City  Board 
of  Education  for  eight  years,  during  a  very  important  period  in 
the  development  of  its  public  schools.  The  interest  in  popular 
education  from  the  beginning  of  our  professional  life  was  inten- 
sified by  the  duties  and  opportunities  of  this  position,  which 
brought  us  into  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  common- school 
public  of  the  Western  States.  The  great  Civil  War  was  at  its 
most  critical  period,  and  Cincinnati  was  a  favorable  point  for  an 
outlook  over  a  vast  field  of  operations.  The  valley  of  the  Ohio 


was  swarming  with  refugees  from  the  colored  and  poor  white 
population  of  the  South-west.  For  the  first  tune,  we  became 
personally  acquainted  with  this  aspect  of  Southern  life.  Unable, 
from  imperfect  health,  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  Union  Army,  our 
attention  was  all  the  more  concentrated  on  the  issue  of  the  con- 
flict and  the  long  period  of  the  rehabilitation  of  Southern  society 
that  would  inevitably  follow  changes  so  radical  through  half  the 
area  of  the  Union.  An  irresistible  impression  forced  itself  upon 
us  that,  in  some  way,  a  providential  "  call "  might  come  to  our- 
self  for  useful  service  in  this  stage  of  the  great  revolutionary 
epoch.  But  no  favorable  opportunity  appeared  during  the  ten 
years  of  our  residence  in  Cincinnati,  although  a  journey  of  a  few 
weeks,  in  1868,  through  the  South-west,  and  a  valuable  personal 
acquaintance  in  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  gave  occasion  for  much 
thought  and  confirmed  our  undefined  purpose. 

In  the  autumn  of  1872,  we  removed  to  Springfield,  Mass,  (our 
native  State),  and,  for  nearly  eight  years,  were  occupied  by  the 
duties  of  our  fifth  and  last  position  in  a  parish  ministry  extend- 
ing through  thirty-five  years, —  in  Gloucester,  Mass.,  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  Albany,  N.Y.,  and  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  In  Springfield,  we 
were  called  again  to  the  work  of  public  school  administration ; 
and  our  acquaintance  with  leading  educational  people  in  the 
East,  through  constant  lecturing,  visitation  of  schools,  and  educa- 
tional journalism,  was  largely  extended.  But  the  old  desire  to 
be  of  service  in  the  rising  educational  life  of  the  South  grew  with 
every  year,  and  became,  at  last,  an  overpowering  consideration. 
Our  ecclesiastical  connections  with  the  Unitarian  denomination 
of  Christians  were  a  bar  to  any  position  of  influence  in  the  great 
and  good  work  of  the  "evangelical"  churches  in  behalf  of  the 
freedmen,  although  subsequent  experience  has  brought  us  into 
the  most  friendly  and  mutually  helpful  relations  with  all  the 
Protestant  Christian  and  Hebrew  organizations.  Besides,  it  was 
not  as  a  teacher,  or  the  representative  of  any  religious  or  eccle- 
siastical body,  or  as  a  government  official,  that  we  desired  to  go  to 
the  Southern  people.  From  the  first,  it  seemed  to  us  that  there 
was  a  place,  in  this  vast  enterprise  of  educating  the  children  and 
youth  of  these  States,  for  a  friendly  private  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  who,  with  some  reputation  as  an  educational  worker, 
might  go  on  "a  labor  of  love"  to  all  the  people  of  the  South, 


following  the  lead  of  Providence,  and,  with  the  exception  of 
teaching,  organizing  schools,  and  becoming  an  "  agent "  of  any 
kind,  serving  as  "  a  man  of  all  work  "  in  a  field  so  extensive  and 
attractive. 

With  these  earnest  hopes  and  vague  plans  in  mind,  we  visited 
Washington,  D.C.,  in  the  winter  of  1879,  and  presented  our 
views  to  the  Hon.  John  Eaton,  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Education,  President  R.  B.  Hayes  and  his  estimable  wife,  and 
other  public  men  interested  in  the  educational  welfare  of  the 
South.  The  idea  at  once  found  unexpected  favor.  There  were 
no  provisions  for  government  aid  to  such  an  undertaking,  save 
the  hearty  sympathy  of  the  National  Administration  and  the 
National  Bureau  of  Education.  The  question,  therefore,  nar- 
rowed itself  at  once  to  the  probability  of  the  friendly  reception 
of  such  a  "  Ministry  of  Education  "  by  the  Southern  people,  and 
its  adequate  financial  support  to  the  extent  of  from  three  to  five 
thousand  dollars,  annually,  from  the  North. 

To  the  first  of  these  questions  we  addressed  ourself,  through 
extended  interviews  with  leading  Southern  members  of  Con- 
gress, especially  the  Senators,  whose  knowledge  of  the  field  was 
supposed  to  be  most  reliable.  To  our  gratification,  the  statement 
of  our  intentions  brought  the  heartiest  response.  Nobody  op- 
posed, all  approved ;  and  many  of  the  most  eminent  Southern 
statesmen  heartily  welcomed  it.  In  their  opinion,  the  visits  to  the 
Southern  States  —  then  engaged  for  the  first  time  in  the  estab- 

o    o 

lishment  of  the  American  system  of  free  common  schools  for  all 
classes  —  of  an  educational  missionary,  adequately  endorsed,  with 
a  single  eye  to  "  building  for  the  children,"  would  be  received  in 
the  spirit  in  which  they  were  offered. 

The  result  of  these  interviews  was  a  subsequent  visit  to  Wash- 
ington in  the  spring  of  1880.  At  this  visit,  a  circular  letter  from 
the  White  House,  signed  by  President  Hayes  and  several  mem- 
bers of  his  Cabinet,  and,  subsequently,  by  many  of  the  leading 
educators  in  the  country,  was  given  us  as  an  evidence  of  confi- 
dence in  the  plan.  Numerous  letters  of  introduction  were  also 
cheerfully  furnished  by  the  most  eminent  of  the  Southern  public 
men,  which  placed  us  at  once  in  communication  with  the  people 
of  the  South.  In  this  preliminary  work,  we  gratefully  acknowl- 
edge the  co-operation  of  Hon.  John  Eaton,  late  United  States 


6 

Commissioner  of  Education,  whose  broad  patriotism  and  Chris- 
tian philanthropy  were  so  conspicuous  in  building  up  the  Na- 
tional Bureau  of  Education.  His  successor,  the  Hon.  N.  H. 
Daw  son,  has  also  been  helpful  in  the  encouragement  of  our 
work. 

The  agent  of  the  Peabody  Educational  Fund,  Dr.  Curry,  and 
Dr.  Haygood,  of  the  Slater  Fund,  have  been  devoted  friends  of 
the  Ministry. 

We  then  turned  to  the  practical  side  of  the  plan, —  how  to 
meet  the  considerable  annual  expenses  of  such  a  ministry.  It 
was  evident  that,  outside  of  entertainment  and  travelling  ex- 
penses, at  the  utmost,  little  pecuniary  assistance  could  be  ex- 
pected from  the  South.  The  eleven  ex-Confederate  States, 
which  would  be  our  special  field  of  labor,  were  struggling  with 
the  prodigious  work  of  establishing,  for  the  first  time,  a  system 
of  free  education  for  their  children,  in  the  face  of  such  a  com- 
plete financial  ruin  as  had  not  been  known  in  modern  history. 
In  this  respect,  our  experience  has  been  more  favorable  than  was 
anticipated ;  for  considerable  sums  of  money,  at  different  times, 
have  been  contributed  by  leading  Southern  citizens,  while  the 
well-known  hospitality  of  the  Southern  people  and  the  good  will 
of  the  great  travelling  corporations  have  rarely  failed  us.  But 
the  money  was  to  be  raised  at  the  North,  and  we  returned  to 
the  city  of  Boston  and  our  native  State  as  the  place  to  find  it. 

A  contribution  raised  by  Rer.  E.  E.  Hale,  D.D.,  enabled  us  to 
make  our  first  visit  to  the  South  in  the  early  summer  of  1880. 
Our  route  included  the  Hampton  (colored)  and  Tileston  (white) 
Schools  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  and  the  public  schools  of 
Richmond,  Va.  This  was  followed  by  a  month,  in  midsummer, 
at  the  first  State  Institute  of  white  teachers  ever  held  in  Vir- 
ginia, at  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  a  corresponding  visit  to 
a  similar  body  of  colored  teachers  at  Lynchburg;  under  the 
direction  of  Dr.  W.  H.  Ruffner  and  Hon.  William  A.  Newell, 
most  eminent  of  the  early  State  Superintendents  of  public  schools 
in  Virginia  and  Maryland. 

The  reception  at  these  visits  removed  all  doubt  that  we  had 
chosen  the  right  path.  Returning  to  Massachusetts  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1880,  we  accepted  the  position  of  Associate  Editor  of 
the  New  England  (weekly)  Journal  of  Education  in  Boston. 


The  American  Unitarian  Association,  which  has  no  system  of 
denominational  schools,  voted  an  annual  appropriation,  as  a  testi- 
monial of  its  deep  interest  in  the  common-school  work  of  the 
South,  with  no  limitation  of  activity  or  expectation  of  denomi- 
national missionary  work.  The  American  Missionary  Associa- 
tion (Congregational)  and  the  Freedman's  Aid  Society  (Metho- 
dist) gave  us  a  commission  to  visit  their  schools  for  colored 
youth  in  the  South,  and  deliver  courses  of  lectures  on  teaching 
to  their  pupils. 

In  this  way,  half  the  expenses  of  the  early  years  of  the  mission 
were  met ;  but  at  no  time  since  have  the  receipts  from  these  and 
similar  sources,  even  when  supplemented  by  our  own  vacation 
labors,  amounted  to  one-half  the  sum  required  for  the  successful 
prosecution  of  our  work.  The  greater  portion  of  the  money  has 
been  collected  in  our  brief  summer  and  autumn  vacations  by 
application  to  friends  of  Southern  education,  largely  in  Boston, 
with  occasional  aid  from  a  few  smaller  New  England  cities,  and 
Brooklyn  and  New  York.  So  far,  the  money  has  always  come, 
though  the  yearly  labor  of  its  collection  has  almost  become  a 
burden.  The  increasing  duties  of  the  field  work  compelled  us, 
in  1885,  to  retire  from  educational  journalism.  Yet  the  literary 
labors  of  the  Ministry  increase  with  every  year,  the  press  being 
everywhere  open  to  our  word.  A  large  number  of  pamphlets 
bearing  on  the  condition  of  the  South  have  been  issued,  of  which 
two,  "  Building  for  the  Children  of  the  South,"  and  "  Industrial 
Education  in  the  South,"  have  been  published  and  widely  circu- 
lated by  the  National  Bureau  of  Education.  This  feature  of  the 
work  has  never  been  thoroughly  developed;  and  it  would  be 
easy  to  circulate  an  indefinite  number  of  these  publications, 
which  are  everywhere  eagerly  read  by  the  people  and  often  repro- 
duced in  the  Southern  press. 

In  December,  1880,  we  entered  on  the  first  extended  tour  of 
our  Ministry  of  Education,  visiting  the  most  important  educa- 
tional centres  and  schools  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  and  Texas,  and,  on  the  return,  Alabama  and  Georgia, 
including  all  the  larger  institutions  of  learning  for  the  colored 
people  supported  by  the  different  denominations  of  Christians  in 
the  North.  The  information  thus  obtained  in  these  colored 
schools  was  of  the  greatest  value,  and  these  pleasant  relations 


continue,  whenever  we  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  class  of 
establishments.  But  our  chief  interest  was  enlisted  in  the  new 
public  schools  of  all  the  States  visited.  These  visitations  were  ? 
always  made  on  the  invitation  of  the  local  school  authorities. 
The  schools  were  inspected,  with  frequent  talks  to  the  children, 
addresses  to  teachers,  conferences  with  school  boards  and  friends 
of  education,  numerous  public  lectures  to  white  and  colored 
people,  frequent  invitations  to  speak  before  legislative  bodies, 
constant  Sunday  services  in  leading  Christian  and  Hebrew 
churches,  and  perpetual  conversation  on  educational  topics.  For 
six  years,  this  work  was  carried  on  in  connection  with  the  duties 
of  editorial  writer  of  the  New  England  and  National  Journal  of 
Education  ;  —  a  larger  amount  of  weekly  writing  than  the  ordi- 
nary demand  for  the  supply  of  a  pulpit. 

We  were  soon  convinced  that  we  had  been  led  by  a  gracious 
Providence  into  a  field  of  labor  wonderfully  broad,  inspiring,  and 
hopeful,  the  only  difficulty  being  the  ability  of  the  worker  to  fill 
its  vast  possibilities.  Not  only  the  public  schools,  but  all  private 
seminaries,  colleges,  universities,  State  and  denominational,  Sun- 
day-schools, and  benevolent  institutions  were  flung  open.  The 
Southern  "  latch-string  was  out,"  and  a  welcome  never  denied 
from  within.  We  can  recall  no  marked  instance  of  discourtesy 
and  but  few  cases  of  courteous  non-acceptance  of  our  proffered 
work.  No  Southern  journal  of  influence  has  opposed,  and  no 
public  or  educational  man  of  note  has  come  across  our  path. 
This  is  the  more  gratifying  since  we  have  used  the  utmost  free- 
dom of  speech  in  discussing  the  subject  at  hand,  with  the  widest 
application  of  educational  principles  to  social  and  public  affairs, 
in  constant  intercourse  with  both  the  white  and  colored  people. 
There  has  been  no  difference  between  the  character  of  our 
addresses  or  our  bearing  as  an  educator  in  the  Southern  and 
Northern  field  of  our  labors.  Usually,  at  least  eight  months  of 
each  year  have  been  spent  in  the  South,  the  remaining  four 
busily  occupied  in  the  Northern  States,  with  brief  time  for  vaca- 
tion. 

Our  habit  has  been,  on  going  to  a  State  not  previously  visited, 
to  put  ourself  in  communication  with  the  educational  authori- 
ties at  the  capital,  and,  following  their  suggestions,  take  up  the 
work  where  it  would  tell  most  powerfully,  especially  on  the  com- 


9 

mon-school  interest.  We  have  been  called  in  this  way  to  all  the 
sixteen  States  of  this  section,  several  of  which  have  repeatedly 
been  visited.  It  is  impossible  for  a  visitor  to  do  profitable  work 
of  this  sort,  to  a  large  extent,  in  the  open  country,  from  the 
sparseness  of  population  and  the  difficulty  of  reaching  the  people. 

But  many  of  the  important  schools  of  the  South  are  situated  in 
the  country,  and,  at  numerous  institutes  and  conventions  and  at 
college  commencement  seasons,  we  have  been  brought  in  contact 
with  the  rural  districts.  The  teachers  from  the  country  have 
been  often  called  to  the  county  seats  to  meet  us.  But  most  of 
the  leading  centres  of  education  in  the  South  have  been  visited 
in  the  past  ten  years,  thousands  of  teachers  and  school  officials 
known,  with  a  constant  appearance  before  large  bodies  of  the 
people,  of  both  races,  in  week-day  lectures  and  Sunday  dis- 
courses. Strength  has  been  given  us  to  do  twice  the  amount  of 
work  of  any  previous  years,  although  approaching  the  time  of 
life  when  men  generally  seek  rest  rather  than  extended  labors. 
But  the  field  grows  broader  with  every  year,  whitening  for  the 
harvest ;  and,  though  laborers  of  all  sorts  and  of  great  experience 
abound,  yet  our  Ministry  of  Education,  a  labor  of  love  for  the 
people  of  the  South,  at  home,  with  a  constant  effort  to  set  before 
the  Northern  people  the  great  element  of  hopefulness  and  encour- 
agement in  their  Southern  neighbors,  opens  each  new  year  with 
a  wider  outlook  enforcing  a  deeper  sense  of  responsibility  to  God 
and  the  Republic.  It  is  our  special  work  as  long  as  life  and 
strength  are  given  us  to  do  it  and  good  men  and  women  can 
be  found  to  hold  up  the  hands,  strengthen  the  knees,  and  cheer 
the  heart  of  him  whose  constant  prayer  is  for  wisdom,  power, 
and  love  to  compass  the  glorious  opportunity  of  a  mission  so 
unique  and  full  of  significance. 

In  these  years  we  have  probably  delivered  from  two  to  three 
thousand  addresses,  reached  many  hundred  thousand  people 
through  the  press,  visited  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  and 
the  graded  schools  of  the  majority  of  the  larger  Southern  towns, 
become  acquainted  with  many  distinguished  Southern  educators, 
and  lived  among  the  most  progressive  and  hopeful  class  of  the 
South;  —  the  superior  teachers,  children,  and  youth,  young  par- 
ents, professional  and  public  men,  and  good  women;  —  the  Edu- 
cational Public,  of  whose  labors  and  sacrifices  for  the  past 


10 

twenty-five  years  the   people   of  the  United  States  are  so  im- 
perfectly informed,  but  on  whose  growing  influence  the  future  of 
these  great  commonwealths,  and  through  them  of  the  Republic, 
so  largely  depends.     It  is  not  for  us  to  magnify  our  mission  or, 
to  attempt  to  set  forth  in  detail  what  may  fairly  be  claimed  a 
its  legitimate  results.     Enough  to  say  that  the  demands  upon  f 
were  never  so  great  as  at  present,  as  the  testimonials  here  pre- 
sented give  ample  assurance. 

The  result  of  our  past  ten  years'  Ministry  of  Education  in  the 
South  has  been  a  deeply  seated  conviction  that  this  section  must 
look  to  education  in  its  broadest  sense ;  —  the  training  of  the 
younger  third  of  its  population  in  mental,  moral  and  religious, 
and  industrial  ways  for  a  true  citizenship  of  the  Republic,  for  the 
solution  of  all  its  social  and  political  problems,  the  development 
of  its  magnificent  material  resources,  and  the  union  of  both  races 
and  all  classes  in  an  enduring  bond  of  patriotism  and  consecra- 
tion to  American  ideas.  We  have  no  faith  in  the  gloomy  prog- 
nostications of  men  who  live  only  in  the  past,  or  attempt  to  repro- 
duce the  follies  and  perils  of  European  society  in  this  new  land. 
We  work  for  the  lohole  American  people  in  working  for  the  chil- 
dren of  the  South. 

At  the  end  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  from  our  great  sectional 
conflict,  the  most  thoughtful  observers  of  national  affairs  are  see- 
ing most  clearly  that  it  is  no  more  a  new  South  than  a  new  East 
and  West  that  must  come  forth  from  the  issues  of  "the  grand 
and  awful  time  "  in  wliich  our  lot  is  cast.  Called  by  Providence 
to  work  in  the  Southern  portion  of  this  vast  seed-field  of  God 
and  humanity,  we  rejoice  at  the  opportunity  to  labor  with  such 
people  as  have  given  us  their  confidence,  and,  heaven  willing, 
shall  not  abate  our  effort  during  the  brief  years  allotted  to  us 
for  service  in  this  world. 

A.  D.  MAYO. 


TESTIMONIALS. 


WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  March  1,  1880. 
REV.  A.  D.  MAYO. 

Dear  Sir, —  We  have  heard  with  pleasure  of  your  intention  to  devote 
yourself  to  the  general  work  of  public-school  education, —  through  the 
press,  through  personal  visitation  of  -schools,  lectures  to  the  people, 
teachers,  and  school  children,  and  friendly  consultation  with  local 
school  authorities.  Having,  for  several  years  past,  been  acquainted 
with  your  increasing  labors  in  this  field,  and  deeply  feeling  the  necessity 
of  this  educational  enterprise  to  which  you  now  propose  to  consecrate 
your  whole  strength  and  time,  we  desire  to  express  our  entire  confidence 
in  your  eminent  fitness  for  this  work,  so  fully  assured  by  your  extended 
acquaintance  with  the  common-school  systems  of  our  country  and  your 
practical  and  acceptable  labors,  now  continued  through  many  years. 
We  trust  that,  everywhere,  your  endeavors  will  meet  the  hearty  accept- 
ance and  support  of  those  seeking  to  promote  a  cause  that  appeals  so 
strongly  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  every  true  American  citizen. 

R.  B.  HAYES,  President  of  United  States. 

WM.  M.  EVARTS,  Secretary  of  State. 

C.  SCHURZ,  Secretary  of  Interior 

CHAS.  DEVENS,  Attorney-General  United  States. 

GEO.  F.  HOAR,  United  States  Senator,  Massachusetts. 

JOHN  D.  LONG,  )   Governors  'of  Massachusetts  and  Members  of 


JOHN  D.  LONG,  )    Governors  'o 

.  TT         T*  i          VjTU  VCl  1L\JL  O      \J 

ALEXANDER  H.  RICE,  V       nnn0TP», 
GEO.  D.  ROBINSON,       J 


JOHN  EATON,  United  States  Commissioner  Education.  f 

W.  H.  RUFFNER,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Virginia. 

B.  G.  NORTHROP,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Connecticut. 

M.  A.  NEWELL,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Maryland. 

J.  W.  DICKINSON,  Secretary  of  Board  of  Education  for  Massachusetts. 

Jos.  DE  SHA  PICKETT,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Kentucky. 

O.  W.  HOLLINGSWORTH,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Texas. 

GUSTAVUS  J.  ORR,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Georgia. 

LEON  TROUSDALE,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Tennessee. 

J.  H.  SMITH,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Mississippi. 

H.  CLAY  ARMSTRONG,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Alabama. 

J.  H.  GROVES,  State  Superintendent  Education  for  Delaware. 

F.  W.  PARKER,  Superintendent  Schools,  Quincy,  Mass. 


12 

JOHN  HANCOCK,  Superintendent  Schools,  Dayton,  Ohio. 

ANDR.  J.  RICKOFF,  Superintendent  Schools,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

WM.  O.  ROGERS,  Superintendent  Schools,  New  Orleans,  La. 

J.  ORMOND  WILSON,  Superintendent  Schools,  Washington,  DC. 

E.  E.  WHITE,  President  State  Agricultural  College,  Indiana. 

J.  L.  PICKARD,  President  State  University,  Iowa. 

R.  H.  JESSE,  President  University  of  Louisiana,  New  Orleans. 

EBEN  S.  STEARNS,  Chancellor  of  University  of  Nashville  and  Peabody 

Normal  School,  Nashville,  Tenn. 
H.   H.   SMITH,  President    Sam    Houston  Normal    School,   Huntsville, 

Texas. 

LARKIN  DUNTON,  Principal  Normal  School,  Boston,  Mass. 
W.  E.  WARD,  President  Ward  Female  College,  Nashville,  Tenn. 
S.  C.  ARMSTRONG,  President  Hampton  Institute,  Hampton,  Va. 
AMY  M.  BRADLEY,  Principal  Tileston  School,  Wilmington,  N.C. 
ELLEN  HYDE,  Principal  State  Normal  School,  Framingham,  Mass. 
THOS.  W.  BICKNELL,    Editor   New   England   and  National  Journal   of 

Education,  Boston,  Mass. 

HENRY  W.  BELLOWS,  D.D.,  New  York  City,  N.Y. 
EDWARD  E.  HALE,  D.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 
JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE,  D.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 
A.  A.  Low,  Brooklyn,  N.Y. 

WASHINGTON,  Dec.  19,  1881. 

The  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  undertakes  a  work  in  behalf  of  education  in  the 
South  which  has  my  most  hearty  commendation. 

It  would  afford  me  great  pleasure  to  know  that  every  boy  and  girl  in 
the  land  has  the  opportunity  of  a  good  free  public-school  education. 

CHESTER  A.  ARTHUR,  President  United  States. 

From  the  National  Bureau  of  Education. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 

BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION, 

WASHINGTON,  Dec.  27,  1881. 

The  bearer,  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  midst  of  his 
ministerial  labors  for  many  years  past,  has  found  time  for  constant 
attention  to  educational  subjects,  observing  carefully  the  condition  of 
instruction,  and  speaking  and  writing  frequently  and  with  great  effect 
upon  educational  topics.  This  love  of  the  work  has  induced  him  to 
withdraw  from  church  care  and  devote  himself  to  the  much  needed 
revival  of  interest  in  education.  His  friends,  recognizing  the  necessity 
of  such  efforts,  and  impressed  with  his  fitness  and  success,  have  fur- 
nished him  means.  Two  years  ago,  in  response  to  invitations,  he  began 


IB 

to  visit  portions  of  the  South.  Last  winter  and  spring  he  spent  entirely 
there.  The  correspondence  of  this  office  gave  abundant  evidence  of  the 
welcome  he  everywhere  received  and  of  the  satisfaction  which  his 
addresses  and  visits  gave  the  friends  of  education.  I  shall  count  every 
institution  and  community  fortunate  that  is  able  to  secure  a  visit  and 
address  from  him.  I  recommend  him  to  the  confidence  and  good 
offices  of  all  on  whom  he  may  call. 

JOHN  EATON, 

United  States  Commissioner  Education. 


fr  WASHINGTON,  B.C.,  Aug.  14,  1883. 

REV.  A.  D.  MAYO  : 

My  dear  Sir, —  Your  labors  in  behalf  of  education  in  the  South  have 
been  full  of  interest  to  me.  The  plan  of  your  work  —  going  by  your  own 
direction,  in  the  most  informal  way  —  accords  with  my  judgment.  Your 
love  of  the  work  and  large  observation  and  knowledge  of  education 
elsewhere,  your  ready  and  effective  presentation  of  it  in  all  its  phases  to 
all  classes  of  people,  and  your  devotion  to  the  single  subject  of  education, 
have  given  you  great  advantage.  It  is  especially  gratifying  to  me  that 
you  have  so  thoroughly  won  your  way  to  the  favor  of  the  Southern  peo- 
ple, who  must  take  up  this  work  of  the  education  of  their  children  if  our 
nation  is  not  to  perish  from  off  the  earth.  There  is  new  encouragement 
to  all  who  are  in  this  work,  that  the  Southern  people  come  to  hear  you  so 
gladly  and  in  such  large  numbers.  Your  work  has  clearly  increased  in 
value  from  year  to  year,  that  of  last  winter  being  by  far  the  most 
effective. 

JOHN  EATON, 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Education. 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 
BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION, 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  Oct.  27,  1888. 

Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  well  known  for  his  unwearied  labors  in  promoting 
and  improving  public  schools,  proposes,  during  the  coming  winter,  to 
visit  such  places  in  the  valley  of  Virginia  as  may  be  open  to  him,  for  the 
purpose  of  delivering  free  lectures  on  topics  of  interest  to  public-school 
officers  and  teachers.  I  hardly  need  to  add  that  Mr.  Mayo  is  a  gentle- 
man in  education,  speech,  and  character,  and  that  he  has  been  doing 
noble  work  for  public  schools  and  popular  enlightenment  in  many  parts 
of  the  South  for  several  winters  past. 

N.  H.  R.  DAWSON, 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Education. 


14 

WASHINGTON,  B.C.,  Dec.  6,  1886. 

Dear  Sir, —  This  letter  will  introduce  to  you  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  of 
Boston,  Mass.,  for  many  years  an  ardent  friend  of  common  schools  and 
popular  education  in  the  South.  Mr.  Mayo  is  widely  known,  and  is 
respected  wherever  he  is  known,  as  a  gentleman  of  high  character  and 
culture,  whose  voice  and  pen  have  been  devoted  with  effect  to  the  agen- 
cies and  methods  of  education  and  conduct.  Mr.  Mayo  visits  Alabama 
and  your  town  in  the  interests  of  education ;  and  I  take  great  pleasure 
in  commending  him  to  you,  feeling  that  your  acquaintance  will  be 
pleasant  and  beneficial. 

Very  truly  yours, 

N.  H.  R.  DAWSON, 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Education. 


From  introduction  to  "  Building  for  the  Children  of  the  South  "  and 
44  Industrial  Education  in  the  South,"  published  by  the  National  Bureau 
of  Education :  — 

4<  The  educational  labors  of  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  are  among  those  which  have  proved  the  most  effective  and  have 
been  most  widely  appreciated.  His  addresses  on  education  in  the  South 
have  been  most  beneficial  in  reviving  the  interests  of  education  in  that 
section,  and  have  been  called  for  there  and  wherever  there  is  an  interest 
in  the  success  of  the  cause  in  that  portion  of  the  country." 
JOHN  EATON, 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Education. 


44  For  the  past  eight  years,  Dr.  Mayo  has  been  engaged  in  a  Ministry 
of  Education  through  all  the  Southern  States.  With  no  official  relations, 
and  with  the  sole  end  in  view  of  observing  educational  affairs  in  the 
South,  together  with  all  forms  of  service  and  labor  found  to  be  practical 
in  the  communities  visited,  with  the  most  hearty  co-operation  of  the 
leading  educators  and  public  men  everywhere,  and  the  most  kindly  recep- 
tion by  teachers  and  pupils,  his  opportunities  of  studying  the  situation 
have  probably  not  been  surpassed. 

44  The  great  interest  in  the  subject  of  the  industrial  education  of  both 
races,  through  the  school  systems  of  the  South,  the  extent  to  which  this 
form  of  instruction  has  already  been  carried,  the  means  available  for  its 
further  development,  and  the  practical  ways  of  engrafting  it  upon  the 
present  school  life  of  that  region,  have  all  been  the  subject  of  careful 
observation  and  anxious  inquiry,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Ministry  of 
Dr.  Mayo." 

N.  H.  R.  DAWSON,  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education. 


15 

[From  the  American  Missionary  Association.'] 

NEW  YORK,  Oct.  16,  1882. 
To  the  Teachers  of  the  American  Missionary  Association  Schools  in  the  South  : 

Dear  Friends, —  The  bearer,  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  D.D. ,  has  visited  the 
South  so  frequently,  and  has  been  welcomed  so  heartily  everywhere,  that 
he  needs  no  introduction  from  me.  Yet,  as  he  proposes  to  return  thither 
this  winter,  we  are  desirous  that  he  should  be  heard  in  our  schools  where 
he  has  not  lectured,  and  that  he  should  receive  the  hospitalities  of  our 
homes  where  he  sojourns,  in  all  cases  where  the  accommodations  and  the 
arrangements  in  the  home  will  render  it  convenient  for  him  and  the  in- 
mates. I  need  not  commend  him  further,  for  he  has  made  for  himself 
a  record  which  places  him  beyond  the  need  of  commendation. 

Yours  truly, 

M.  E.  STRIEBY, 
I  Corresponding  Secretary,  A.M.A. 


[From  the  Freedman's  Aid  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.] 

CINCINNATI,  OHIO,  December,  1881. 
REV.  A.  D.  MAYO: 

I  am  suddenly  called  South,  and  hope  to  meet  you  in  your  travels.  In 
the  places  you  visit  where  we  have  schools  of  any  importance,  I  should 
be  happy  to  have  you  visit  and  address  them.  Nashville,  Tenn.,  Atlanta, 
Ga.,  Orangeburg,  S.C.,  Holly  Springs,  Miss.,  Greensborough,  N.C., 
Marshall,  Tex.,  Huntsville,  Ala.,  New  Orleans,  La.,  might  be  visited  in 
connection  with  your  visits  to  these  places  and  the  schools  of  the 
A.M.A.  Do  all  the  good  you  can.  If  we  cross  each  other's  tracks,  we 
will  confer  together  on  the  matter. 

R.  S.  RUST,  Corresponding  Secretary. 


805  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK,  Oct.  31,  1883. 
REV.  A.  D.  MAYO  : 

My  dear  Sir, —  On  conference  with  Dr.  Rust,  we  agreed  to  ask  you 
to  visit  all  our  schools  that  come  in  your  way,  and  speak  three  or  four 
times  to  them  on  teaching.  This  letter  may  be  an  introduction  to  any 
of  our  schools ;  and,  when  it  seems  to  you  and  the  principal  that  more 
work  could  be  advantageously  done,  you  may  do  it. 

Yours  truly, 

HENRY  W.  WARREN, 

Bishop  of  the  M.  E.  Church. 


16 

From  Educational  Associations,  Missionary  Bodies,  etc. 

[From  Peabody  Education  Fund.~\ 

UPLANDS,  BROOKLINE,  MASS.,  Aug.  2,  1889. 
REV.  A.  D.  MAYO  : 

My  dear  Sir, —  I  thank  you  for  sending  me  your  articles  on  Texas.  I 
have  read  them  with  great  interest,  and  I  rejoice  at  such  encouraging 
accounts  of  the  progress  of  education,  under  the  "Lone  Star."  Your 
Ministry  of  Education  in  the  Southern  States  has  often  attracted  my 
attention.  All  that  I  have  observed  of  it,  and  all  that  I  have  heard  of 
it  from  Southern  friends,  confirms  me  in  the  impression  that  you  are 
doing  an  excellent  work,  and  doing  it  efficiently  and  successfully. 
Believe  me,  dear  Dr.  Mayo,  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

ROBERT  C.  WINTHROP. 


[Peabody  Education  Fund.] 

RICHMOND,  VA.,  Nov.  20,  1888. 

Dr.  A.  D.  Mayo  for  several  years  has  given  his  best  energies  to  the 
cause  of  education  in  the  South.  His  addresses  and  writings  have  been 
prudent,  wise,  able,  healthful,  and  stimulating.  His  demeanor  as  a 
gentleman  and  a  scholar  has  commended  him  to  the  confidence  and 
esteem  of  all  good  people.  His  "  Ministry  of  Education "  has  been  a 
potent  factor  in  school  work.  To  governors,  superintendents  of  educa- 
tion, teachers,  editors,  and  all  interested  in  the  true  upbuilding  of  the 
South,  I  wish  to  commend  Dr.  Mayo  most  heartily. 

J.  L.  M.  CURRY, 
General  Agent  of  the  Peabody  Education  Fund. 


[From  the  Slater  Educational  Fund  for  the  Education  of  the  Colored  People.] 

DECATUR,  GA.,  Aug.  13,  1889. 

My  dear  Doctor, —  I  very  much  hope  you  will  continue  your  gracious 
"  Mission  "  in  the  South.  Some  things  I  know :  one  is,  that  you  have 
been  a  blessing  to  our  people.  I  believe  you  understand  our  case  as  no 
other  Northern  man  understands  it.  I  have  perhaps  had  better  oppor- 
tunity to  form  a  just  estimate  of  your  work  than  any  other  Southern 
man  has  had.  I  also  "  go  to  and  fro,"  and  I  have  crossed  your  path 
many  times,  and  have  heard  those  speak  of  your  work  who  knew  its 
great  worth. 

The  good  Lord  send  you  among  our  schools  again  and  again. 
Your  friend,  very  truly, 

A.  G.  HAYGOOD, 
Former  Pres.  Emory  College,  Ga.,  now  Agt.  Slater  Fund. 


17 

[From  Society  for  Religious  Education.'] 

BOSTON,  Aug.  30,  1883. 

The  Society  for  Religious  Education  commissions  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  to 
visit  the  Southern  States  in  the  interests  of  common-school  education. 
This  note  is  to  introduce  him  to  any  friend  of  education. 

EDWARD  E.  HALE,  Chairman  of  Committee. 

[From  the  Louisiana  Educational  Society.] 

At  a  conference  of  this  society  in  New  Orleans,  Jan.  5,  1886,  the  fol- 
lowing gentlemen  were  present,  the  Hon.  Louis  Bush  presiding:  Hon. 
Louis  Bush,  Rev.  I.  L.  Leucht,  Rev.  B.  M.  Palmer,  D.D.,  Rev.  J.  K. 
Gutheim,  Colonel  William  Preston  Johnston,  Reuben  G.  Bush,  W.  F. 
Halsey,  R.  M.  Walmsley,  Hon.  G.  A.  Breaux,  R.  H.  Browne,  Professor 
R.  H.  Jesse,  Hon^C.  F.  Buck,  Hon.  Ulric  Bettison,  Dr.  Sanford  E. 
Chaille,  also  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo. 

The  subject  of  an  Educational  Visitation  through  the  State  of  Loui- 
siana, by  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  under  the  direction  of  the  Louisiana 
Educational  Society,  elicited  prolonged  discussion,  participated  in  by 
nearly  all  present.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Palmer,  Dr.  Sanford  E.  Chaille,  Rev. 
J.  K.  Gutheim,  Colonel  Bush  and  others,  most  heartily  endorsed  the 
Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  as  the  best  man  that  could  have  been  secured  to  under 
take  this  work. 

Colonel  William  Preston  Johnston  handed  in  the  following  as  express- 
ing, in  general  terms,  the  views  of  this  society  concerning  Dr.  Mayo  and 
his  proposed  work :  — 

The  principal  objects  which  the  Louisiana  Educational  Society  has  set 
before  itself,  in  default  of  means  to  accomplish  larger  results,  are  — 

1.  To  arouse  the  public  mind  in  Louisiana  to  a  sense  of  our  woful 
deficiencies  in  education  and  the  necessity  of  remedying  them. 

2.  To    afford    to  those  who  may  interest  themselves  in  the  matter, 
information  as  to  school  laws,  the  best  modes  for  parish  organization, 
the  progress  of  ideas  in  education  and  pedagogical  methods,  and  kindred 
topics. 

While  considerable  interest  has  already  been  awakened  in  the  State, 
and  something  has  been  done  toward  organization  and  the  improvement 
of  the  schools,  as  yet  this  can  be  considered  only  the  beginning.  But 
the  Educational  Society  does  not  propose  to  rest  until  it  drives  the  last 
nail  in  the  coffin  of  ignorance.  , 

In  looking  around  for  a  person  free  from  local  complications,  thor- 
oughly informed,  an  enthusiast  in  educational  work,  and  whose  charac- 
ter and  talents  would  commend  him  to  the  good  will  and  sympathy  of 
our  people,  the  Louisiana  Educational  Society  had  no  difficulty  in  select- 
ing Dr.  Mayo,  not  only  as  pre-eminently  fit,  but  as,  by  all  odds,  the  best 
man  in  the  United  States  for  the  work. 

Dr.  Mayo  devoted  himself  some  six  years  ago  to  the  cause  of  Southern 
education.  Though  a  Bostonian  and  a  Republican,  he  determined  to 
see  with  his  own  eyes  the  condition  of  things  in  the  South  before  decid- 


18 

ing  for  himself  or  informing  others  what  ought  to  be  done  for  education 
in  the  South.  Since  then,  he  has  passed  most  of  his  time  in  travelling 
in  this  section,  and  in  public  discussion  of  what  he  has  learned  here. 

The  reports  which  he  carried  North  were  very  different  from  the  lying 
bulletins  of  the  carpet-baggers,  which  had  done  so  much  to  prejudice  the 
Northern  mind  against  us.  While  he  showed  a  true  picture  of  the 
nakedness  of  the  land,  the  poverty,  the  ignorance  and  great  discourage- 
ments of  our  populations,  he  called  attention  in  a  very  pointed  manner 
to  the  heroic  efforts  of  our  people  to  rise  above  these  adverse  circum- 
stances and  do  justice  in  educational  matters  to  both  races.  He  testified 
to  the  real  loyalty  of  our  people  to  American  ideas,  their  present  fidelity 
to  the  Union,  and  to  their  native  vigor  and  intelligence,  in  which  he 
hopefully  saw  the  promise  of  social  progress  and  political  resurrection. 
Dr.  Mayo's  exceptionally  high  character,  political  affiliations,  and  per- 
suasive oratory  secured  him  a  hearing  among  the  most  intelligent  people 
of  the  North  which  would  have  been  accorded  to  no  Southern  man  or 
Northern  partisan  politician,  especially  among  the  educators  who  wield 
a  great  though  silent  influence  on  the  popular  t-i  ought. 

Dr.  Mayo's  words  had  a  most  powerful  effect.  I  think  it  can  be  truly 
said  that  no  one  man  in  the  North  has  in  the  last  six  years  done  more 
to  soften  asperities  between  the  sections  and  to  promote  a  feeling  of 
brotherhood  among  the  States  than  this  gentleman. 

The  report  of  the  committee  was  then  adopted. 

Dr.  Palmer  said  that  it  is  his  conviction  that  the  society  was  fortunate 
in  securing  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Mayo.  During  his  previous  visits  he 
has  won  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  the  people  here.  He  will  go  forth 
bearing  their  cordial  and  entire  sympathy,  indorsement,  and  support. 
Dr.  Palmer  said  he  would  be  exceedingly  disappointed  if  his  tour  does 
not  produce  large  results  in  the  future.  The  State  needs  to  be  aroused 
on  the  subject  of  education,  and  the  best  way  to  arouse  it  is  for  the  liv- 
ing voice  and  the  living  heart  of  a  living  man  to  stir  it  up.  Under 
God's  will,  Dr.  Mayo  will  do  it. 

Dr.  Chaille,  Dr.  Gutheim,  Dr.  Leucht,  Colonel  Johnston,  Mr.  Browne, 
Colonel  Breaux,  Colonel  Rogers,  President  Bush,  Mr.  Buck,  and  others 
discussed  the  objects  of  the  tour,  the  educational  situation  and  interests 
of  Louisiana,  and  the  necessity  of  promoting  a  spirit  of  organization  for 
educational  purposes  throughout  the  State. 

Drs.  Chaille  and  Richardson  have  given  Dr.  Mayo  a  general  letter  of 
introduction  to  the  medical  profession  of  the  State,  many  members  of 
which  were  educated  in  the  college  in  which  they  are  professors,  asking 
them  to  afford  him  every  facility  to  make  his  trip  a  success. 

Under  the  auspices  of  this  society  of  which  Hon.  Louis  Bush 
is  president,  W.  O.  Rogers,  vice-president,  Rev.  I.  L.  Leucht, 
secretary,  and  Cartwright  Eustis,  Esq.,  treasurer,  Dr.  Mayo  made 
an  extended  canvass  of  Louisiana  in  the  winter  and  spring  of 
1886.  He  bore  the  following  letters  of  introduction  : — 


19 

NEW  ORLEANS,  Feb.  5,  1886. 
To  all  Friends  of  Education  throughout  the  State  of  Louisiana : 

Permit  us  to  introduce  to  you,  herewith,  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  who, 
under  the  auspices  of  our  society,  visits  you  in  the  interest  of  public 
education. 

His  labor  in  this  grand  enterprise  is  one  of  love  and  marked  unsel- 
fishness, and  therefore  we  request  you  to  assist  him  in  his  undertaking 
to  the  best  of  your  ability. 

Dr.  Mayo  has  the  enthusiastic  endorsement  of  every  member  of  our 
society  and  of  the  philanthropic  gentlemen  of  this  community. 

All  favors  extended  to  him  will  redound  to  the  progress  and  develop- 
ment of  our  beloved  State.  Very  respectfully, 

I.  L.  LEUCHT,  Secretary. 


.  -NEW  ORLEANS,  Feb.  4,  1886. 

To  Members  of  the  Louisiana  State  Medical  Society  and  to  all  reputable  members 

of  the  Medical  Profession  in  Louisiana : 

Gentlemen, —  The  Rev.  Mr.  Mayo,  for  the  sake  of  his  mission  in  behalf 
of  public  education  and  because  of  his  own  abundant  personal  merits, 
is  entitled  to  your  highest  consideration,  to  your  kindest  courtesies,  and 
to  your  most  generous  hospitality. 

We  specially  request  that  all  personal  friends  and  acquaintances  to 
whom  these  lines  may  be  made  known  will  give  to  them  the  same  con- 
sideration which  they  would  pay  to  a  private  letter  of  introduction. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 

SAXFORD  E.  CHAILLE,  M.D., 

Dean  of  Medical  Department  of  Tulane  University. 
J.  G.  RICHARDSON,  M.D., 

Professor  of  Medical  Department. 


At  the  close  of  this  tour,  Dr.  Mayo  delivered  an  address  in 
New  'Orleans  on  "Education  in  Louisiana,"  which,  with  his 
report  of  his  mission,  was  approved  by  the  Louisiana  Educational 
Society,  and  widely  circulated  by  the  leading  press  of  the 
State. 


20 


Testimonials  from  Institutions  of  Learning,  School  Authorities,  City 
Governments,  Public  Men,  and  other  sources  in  the  Southern  States, 
—  extending  through  Nine  Years  of  the  Ministry  of  Education. 

[From  Tulane  University  of  Louisiana,  under  whose  auspices  Dr.  Mayo  has 
delivered  several  courses  of  educational  lectures  to  the  teachers,  labor  organiza- 
tions, and  the  general  public  of  the  City  of  New  Orleans.'] 


NEW  ORLEANS,  Jan.  17,  1889. 
To  whom  it  may  concern, —  Rev.  Dr.  A.  D.  Mayo,  of  Boston,  has  devoted 
eight  years  to  the  study  of  Education  in  the  South,  and  I  regard  him  as 
the  best  informed  person  of  my  acquaintance  on  this  question.  His 
study  of  it  has  been  made  in  a  broad  and  charitable  spirit,  and  with  an 
eye  to  practical  conditions.  His  missionary  zeal,  his  homely  way  of 
putting  vigorous  thought,  his  conciliatory  address,  his  exalted  yet  expan- 
sive patriotism,  and  his  most  excellent  common  sense,  have  enabled  him 
to  achieve  a  vast  deal  of  good. 

Much  work  has  been  done  by  him  under  my  own  eye,  and  it  has  been 
of  the  best  kind.  I  trust  that  he  may  long  be  able  to  continue  his  valu- 
able services,  which  inure  to  the  benefit  of  both  the  white  and  black 
races.  I  wish  him  God-speed  in  this  great  and  good  work. 

Very  respectfully, 

WM.' PRESTON  JOHNSTON, 
President  Tulane  University,  New  Orleans,  La. 

I  Work  in  the  City  of  Charleston,  S.C.'] 

CITY  HALL,  CHARLESTON,  S.C., 

OFFICE  OF  CLERK  OF  COUNCIL, 

Feb.  14,  1882. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  City  Council,  held  this  evening,  the  follow- 
ing resolutions,  offered  by  Alderman  G.  W.  Dingle,  were  unani- 
mously adopted :  — 

Whereas  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mayo  is  shortly  expected  to  visit  this  city  in 
the  interest  of  Public  Education,  be  it  therefore  resolved  by  the  City 
Council, — 

1.  That  they  have  learned  with  great  pleasure  of  the  intended  visit  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Mayo. 

2.  That  his  Honor  the  Mayor  be  requested  to  invite  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Mayo  to  be  the  guest  of  the  city,  during  his  stay. 

3.  That  his   Honor  the  Mayor  be  requested  to   make  all  necessary 
arrangements  for  the  delivery  of  the  lectures  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mayo. 

(Seal  of  City)  Attest:  W.  W.  SIMONS, 

Clerk  of  Council. 


21 

In  response  to  this  invitation,  Dr.  Mayo  spent  two  weeks  in 
the  visitation  of  the  educational  and  charitable  institutions  of 
Charleston,  and  was  received  with  gratifying  courtesies,  public 
and  private. 

On  several  subsequent  visits,  Dr.  Mayo  has  been  "  the  guest  of 
the  city,"  and  continued  the  work  then  begun.  At  the  close  of 
the  first  visit,  he  delivered  an  address,  the  report  of  which  is  thus 
introduced  in  the  Charleston  News  and  Courier:  — 

LIFTING  UP  THE  NATION. — DR.  MAYO'8  LECTURE  ON  UNIVERSAL  EDUCA- 
TION.— A  DELIGHTED  AUDIENCE  AT  THE  ACADEMY  OF  MUSIC  LAST 
NIGHT. 

"  The  Academy  of  Music  last  night  was  filled  with  a  large  and  appre- 
ciative audience  to  hear  the  public  lecture  of  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  D.D., 
of  Boston.  The  seats  upon  the  stage  were  occupied  by  the  Mayor  of  the 
city  and  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  a  number  of  the  clergymen  of  the  city, 
the  trustees  and  faculty  of  the  College  of  Charleston,  the  faculty  of  the 
Medical  College,  the  principals  of  the  city  schools,  several  members  of 
the  Charleston  delegation  to  the  General  Assembly,  and  a  number  of  dis- 
tinguished citizens. 

"  Mayor  Courtenay  presided,  and  presented  the  lecturer  as  follows  : — 

"It  is  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that  I  introduce  to  you  a  distin- 
guished citizen  of  a  sister  State,  who  is  on  a  visit  to  South  Carolina  in 
the  interest  of  universal  education.  For  several  years,  his  thoughtful 
mind  has  been  considering  the  conditions  of  Southern  education,  and 
a  year  or  two  since  he  concluded  that  the  time  was  propitious  for  arous- 
ing a  general  interest  in  this  momentous  subject.  He  has  gone  to  this 
work  with  an  earnest  purpose  to  accomplish  a  great  change,  and  his 
reward  is  assured.  It  will  come  to  him  in  the  near  future,  in  the  multi- 
plication of  schools,  a  higher  standard  of  teaching,  and  the  grateful 
thanks  of  tens  of  thousands  who  will  have  profited  by  his  laborious  and 
far-reaching  efforts.  I  present  to  you  Dr.  Mayo  of  Boston. 

"  Without  reference  to  notes  or  manuscript,  Dr.  Mayo  proceeded  to  de- 
liver one  of  the  most  entertaining  and  instructive  public  addresses  that 
has  ever  been  heard  in  Charleston." 

Dr.  Mayo  was  also  requested  to  prepare  an  article  for  the  press, 
giving  the  results  of  his  observation  of  the  schools  of  Charleston, 
with  suggestions  concerning  the  concentration  of  effort  by  the 
numerous  excellent  institutions  of  the  city.  This  was  prepared 
and  published  in  the  Neics  and  Courier,  then  edited  by  the  late 
and  greatly  lamented  Colonel  Dawson. 

On  leaving  the  city,  Dr.  Mayo  was  presented  with  an  engrossed 
document :  — 


22 


The  City  Council  to  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  D.D. 

CITY  OF  CHARLESTON, 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

April  18,  1882. 

Dear  Sir, —  I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  the  following  resolutions, 
unanimously  adopted  by  the  City  Council,  on  the  llth  of  April,  1882. 

"The  Committee,  appointed  under  resolution  of  Council  to  prepare 
suitable  resolutions  to  be  sent  to  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  D.D.,  expressive 
of  the  thanks  of  our  citizens  for  his  recent  visit  to  our  city  in  the 
interest  of  public  education,  respectfully  recommend  the  adoption  of 
the  following  resolutions : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  City  Council  herewith  express  their  sincere  grati- 
fication at  the  recent  visit  of  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  D.D.,  to  our  city. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  herewith  return  to  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  D.D.,  our 
hearty  thanks  for  the  able,  eloquent,  and  instructive  address  delivered 
by  him  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  and  the  addresses  delivered  by  him  in 
the  several  educational  institutions  of  our  city. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  regard  with  high  appreciation  the  zeal  and  interest 
manifested  by  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  D.D.,  in  the  cause  of  public  educa- 
tion, and  cherish  the  hope  that  his  varied  and  earnest  efforts  in  this 
direction  may  be  rewarded  with  deserved  success." 

G.  W.  DINGLE. 
A.  JOHNSON. 
A.  B.  ROSE. 
(Seal  of  City)  WM.  A.  COURTENAY,  Mayor. 

W.  H.  SIMONS,  Clerk  of  Council. 

At  a  subsequent  visit,  under  the  same  invitation,  Dr.  Mayo 
gave  his  entire  attention  to  the  colored  schools  and  people  of  the 
city.  The  following  account  of  an  interesting  incident  in  this 
visit  is  from  an  address  entitled,  "  The  New  Education  in  the 
New  South  " :  — 

"  More  than  twenty  years  ago,  one  of  the  bravest  of  the  young  com- 
manders in  the  national  army,  Colonel  Shaw,  of  the  city  of  New  York, 
fell,  at  the  head  of  his  brigade  of  colored  soldiers,  in  a  desperate  assault 
on  Fort  Wagner,  during  the  siege  of  Charleston.  He  was  buried  with 
his  men,  and  his  body  was  never  found.  After  the  close  of  the  war, 
the  families  in  New  York  and  Boston,  connected  with  the  fallen 
soldier,  built  a  school-house  in  Charleston  for  colored  children,  estab- 
lished the  Shaw  School,  and  for  several  years  supported  it  as  a  private 
beneficence.  Some  five  years  since,  the  use  of  the  building  was  granted 
to  the  public  school  authorities  of  the  city,  on  condition  of  the  support 
of  the  school  as  a  part  of  the  general  system  of  instruction.  Later  still, 


23 

the  building  was  virtually  given  to  the  city,  and  all  the  funds  of  the 
corporation  passed  over  for  its  enlargement ;  and  now  one  of  the  public 
schools  of  Charleston  bears  the  name  of  the  New  York  colonel  who  died 
at  the  head  of  his  black  brigade,  forcing  the  entrance  to  that  beleaguered 
city. 

"  Last  April,  for  the  third  time,  I  visited  the  city,  the  guest  of  its  gov- 
ernment,— this  time  for  the  sole  purpose  of  speaking  to,  and  advising 
with,  the  colored  people.  And  I  saw  that  nowhere  in  this  country  is 
there  now  a  more  thorough  and  honest  purpose  to  give  these  people  a 
fair  elementary  education  than  in  the  city  that  first  threw  out  the  flag 
of  revolt  and  shot  the  first  gun  turned  against  the  Union  in  '61. 
There  are  several  large  schools,  supported  from  the  North,  which  were 
visited.  But  the  most  interesting  of  all  were  the  two  great  free  schools, 
containing  two  thousand  colored  children,  many  of  their  teachers  repre- 
senting the  old  respectable  white  families  of  the  city.  No  portion  of 
the  public  school  system  receives  more  cordial  and  careful  attention  than 
this  from  the  able  superintendent,  the  patriotic  and  energetic  Mayor, 
and  the  School  Board,  whose  president  is  the  former  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  Confederate  Government,  Colonel  Memminger. 

My  last  visit  was  to  the  Shaw  School,  now  a  collection  of  several  hun- 
dred children,  with  white  and  colored  teachers ;  the  principal,  like  the 
city  superintendent,  an  officer  in  the  Confederate  army.  After  suitable 
inspection,  I  was  invited  to  the  great  hall  to  listen  to  some  exercises  by 
the  higher  classes,  prepared,  as  I  understood,  for  their  coming  com- 
mencement exhibition.  The  first  was  a  recitation,  by  a  hundred  of  the 
older  pupils,  from  Longfellow's  '  Building  of  the  Ship  ' :  — 

'Sail  on,  0  Ship  of  State! 
Sail  on,  O  Union,  strong  and  great ! 
Humanity  with  all  its  fears, 
With  all  its  hopes  of  future  years, 
Is  hanging  breathless  on  thy  fate  ! 

Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  are  all  with  thee, 
Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  tears, 
Our  faith  triumphant  o'er  our  fears, 
Are  all  with  thee, — are  all  with  thee ! ' 

Then  a  boy,  as  black  as  night,  George  Washington  by  name,  was  sum- 
moned from  his  seat  to  recite  a  pathetic  poem,  "  The  Dying  Soldier." 
It  didn't  need  comment  to  show  for  what  cause  that  soldier  died ;  for 
the  poem  was  a  most  touching  story  of  peril  and  suffering,  even  unto 
death,  for  the  saving  of  the  Union.  As  the  soldier  neared  his  end,  he 
called  to  his  companions  for  one  more  of  the  old  songs  of  the  village 
Sunday-school ;  and  the  whole  body  of  children  took  up  the  theme  and 


24 

sung,  with  a  pathos  only  heard  in  the  tones  of  the  freedmen,  the  dying 
refrain.  The  soldier  breathed  his  last  with  a  prayer  for  his  country; 
when  the  entire  crowd  sprang  to  their  feet  and,  led  by  their  teachers, 
pealed  forth, — 

'  The  star-spangled  banner,  0  long  may  it  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave  ! ' 

"  Two  weeks  later,  I  stood  at  the  other  end  of  South  Carolina,  in  the 
thriving  town  of  Chester,  in  another  colored  school,  supported  by  North- 
ern funds,  for  the  higher  and  industrial  education  of  colored  youth. 
Beside  me  was  Colonel  Coward,  the  excellent  State  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction.  We  stood  in  the  halls  of  a  great  plantation  house, 
and  overlooked  a  broad  estate  on  a  beautiful  hill-top,  now  owned  and  used 
for  this  end.  That  estate  in  1860  was  held  by  the  largest  slaveholder 
in  northern  South  Carolina;  and  here  was  the  official  of  the  State  bid 
ding  God-speed  to  the  new  work  of  uplifting  to  which  it  is  conseccrated 
to-day." 

Dr.  Mayo  visited  South  Carolina,  for  the  first  time,  in  the  year 
1882,  bearing  the  following  letters  :  — 

U.  S.  SENATE  CHAMBER, 

WASHINGTON,  Dec.  16, 1881. 
HON.  H.  S.  THOMPSON,  State  Supt.  Education,  Columbia,  S.C.  : 

My  dear  Sir, —  I  beg  to  commend  to  you  Dr.  Mayo  of  Massachusetts, 
who  is  devoting  himself  to  the  cause  of  education,  and  any  co-operation 
rendered  his  efforts  in  South  Carolina  will  be  gratefully  appreciated 
by  him. 

Have  the  kindness  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  your  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  educational  wants  of  South  Carolina,  and  show  him  such  atten- 
tion as  his  high  character  and  laudable  mission  deserve. 
Very  truly  yours, 

M.  C.  BUTLER,  U.  S.  Senator  from  South  Carolina. 

I  take  pleasure  in  concurring  in  the  letter  of  Gen.  Butler. 

WADE  HAMPTON,  U.  S.  Senator  from  South  Carolina. 

i 
A  similar  letter,  originally  addressed  to  the  people  of  South 

Carolina,  was  indorsed,  for  general  use  in  the  South,  by  the  fol- 
lowing Senators  in  Congress  :  — 

Wade  Hampton,  M.  C.  Butler,  Senators  from  South  Carolina. 

Thomas  F.  Bayard,  Eli  Saulsbury,  Senators  from  Delaware. 

James  B.  Beck,  Senator  from  Kentucky. 

Joseph  E.  Brown,  Alfred  H.  Colquitt,  Senators  from  Georgia. 


25 

Isham  G.  Harris,  Howell  E.  Johnson,  Senators  from  Tennessee. 
Augustus  H.  Garland,  Senator  from  Arkansas. 
L.  Q.  C.  Lamar,  James  Q.  George,  Senators  from  Mississippi. 
William  Call,  Charles  E.  Jones,  Senators  from  Florida. 
Randall  L.  Gibson,  Senator  from  Louisiana. 

STATE  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA, 

EXECUTIVE  CHAMBER, 

COLUMBIA,  Feb.  13,  1882. 

Dr.  Mayo  visits  this  State  in  the  interest  of  education.  He  brings 
with  him  the  highest  recommendations,  and  is  commended  to  the  cour- 
tesy and  co-operation  of  our  people. 

JOHNSON  HAGOOD,  Governor  South  Carolina. 

[From  Hon.  Hugh  S.  Thompson,  State  Superintendent  Education,  Governor 
of  South  Carolina,  First  Agent  U.  S.  Treasury,  Member  U.  S.  Civil 
Service  Commission.'] 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  Aug.  24, 1889. 

Having  personal  knowledge  of  the  work  of  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  in 
South  Carolina,  I  take  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to  the  great  good 
which  he  has  accomplished  in  arousing  interest  in  popular  education. 
His  energy  and  his  power  as  a  public  speaker  have  enabled  him  to 
render  most  valuable  service  to  the  cause  in  which  he  labors  with  a 
zeal  and  diligence  worthy  of  all  praise.  I  sincerely  hope  he  will  be  able 
to  continue  his  good  work  in  behalf  of  education  in  the  South. 

HUGH  S.  THOMPSON. 

[From  Hon.  William  A.  Courtenay,  Mayor  of  Charleston,  S.C.,  Member  of 
Board  of  Directors  of  Peabody  Education  Fund.~\ 

CHARLESTON,  S.C.,  Sept.  1,  1889. 

Rev.  and  dear  Sir, —  It  is  a  gratification  to  know  that  your  thought 
and  labor  are  still  enlisted  in  that  great  and  good  work  of  quicken- 
ing the  public  sense  in  the  Southern  States  for  larger  opportunities 
and  better  schools  in  this  wide-extended  and  rapidly-developing  area 
of  our  Union. 

It  is  now  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  the  close  of  the  war 
between  the  States  ;  and  as,  against  the  sombre  shadow  which  rested  on 
the  Southern  States  in  those  succeeding  years,  we  recall  the  radiance 
of  George  Peabody's  educational  gift,  with  its  manifold  encouragement 
and  its  sweet  message  of  "peace  and  good-will,"  so,  in  later  years,  in 
pleasant  retrospect  is  your  "  Ministry  of  Education,"  which  has  unques- 
tionably strengthened  the  whole  South  in  its  purpose  to  do  its  full  duty 
in  its  educational  work. 


26 

It  has  been  ray  privilege  to  welcome  you,  officially  and  personally,  to 
Charleston  on  several  occasions;  and  I  cheerfully  testify  to  your  good 
influence  there  and  to  the  high  appreciation  in  which  your  services  are 
held.  I  am  yours  truly, 

WILLIAM  A.  COURTENAY. 

OFFICE  OF  THE  TOWN  CLERK  AND  TREASURER, 
BEAUFORT,  S.C.,  March  9,  1882. 

Whereas  the  Town  Council  of  Beaufort  has  learned  with  pleasure  of 
the  proposed  visit  of  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  to  our  town  in  the  interest 
of  public  education,  and,  whereas,  it  is  the  desire  of  council  to  encour- 
age all  workers  in  aid  of  this  important  instrument  for  the  welfare  of 
the  Republic,  therefore, 

Be  it  resolved  by  the  Intendant  and  Wardens  of  the  town  of  Beaufort, 
in  council  assembled,  that  the  hospitality  of  the  town  be  and  is  hereby 
extended  to  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  accompanied  by  their  best  wishes  for 
the  success  of  his  undertaking  while  visiting  the  State. 

And  be  it  further  resolved  that  the  Intendant  be  requested  to  appoint 
a  committee  of  members  of  Council  and  citizens,  to  meet  the  Rev.  A.  D. 
Mayo  upon  his  arrival,  and  extend  the  kindly  offices  as  set  forth  in  the 
foregoing  resolutions. 

Adopted  iu  Council  this  ninth  day  of  March,  A.D.  1882. 

ALFRED  G.  THOMAS,  Clerk  of  Council. 

STATE  OF  ALABAMA,  EXECUTIVE  OFFICE, 

MONTGOMERY,  Jan.  18,  1887. 
HON.  N.  H.  R.  DAWSON, 

Commissioner  of  Education,  Washington,  D.C. : 

Dear  Sir, —  I  have  received  your  favor  of  a  few  days  since,  advising 
that  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  D.D.,  anticipates  visiting  Alabama  in  the  in- 
terest of  education,  and  will  await  his  coming  with  pleasure. 
Yours  very  truly, 

THOMAS  SEAY,  Governor. 

U.  S.  SENATE,  WASHINGTON,  Dec.  1,  1880. 
To  MAJOR  E.  W.  CABE,  Houston,  Texas : 

Dear  Major, —  This  will  introduce  to  you  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  of  Boston, 
Mass.,  who  is  on  an  educational  tour  through  the  South.  His  purposes 
are  inspired  by  sympathy  and  friendship  for  our  people.  He  comes  to 
me  recommended  most  highly  as  a  gentleman  of  culture,  whose  time  has 
for  years  been  devoted  to  educational  interests,  and  the  benefits  of'whose 
experience  will  be  valuable  to  us.  Please  show  him  attention,  and  see 
that  he  meets  the  reception  he  so  well  merits. 
Your  friend, 

RICHARD  COKE, 

U.  S.  Senator,  Texas. 


27 

COMMONWEALTH  OF  MASSACHUSETTS, 
EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

BOSTON,  Sept.  8,  1883. 

Reposing  full  confidence  in  your  desire  and  ability  to  aid  the  cause  of 
education,  in  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  Governor  of  the  State 
of  Kentucky,  that  a  delegation  consisting  of  a  number  of  the  ablest  citi- 
zens of  this  Commonwealth  should  be  appointed  delegates  to  attend  a 
convention  to  be  held  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  on  the  19th,  20th,  and  21st 
inst.,  for  the  purpose  of  advancing  the  cause  of  popular  education,  I,  by 
these  presents,  do  appoint  you  one  of  such  delegates  to  represent,  in 
said  convention,  in  all  due  and  proper  proceedings,  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand,  this  eighth  day  of 
September,  1883.  BENJAMIN  F.  BUTLER, 

By  His  Excellency  the  Governor. 
Witness  the  seal  of  the  Commonwealth. 

HENRT  B.  PEIRCE,  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth. 

U.  S.  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY, 

NORFOLK,  VA.,  Jan  6,  1882. 

My  dear  Sir, —  Permit  me  to  introduce  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  of  Boston, 
who  visits  you  in  the  interests  of  a  cause  I  know  you  have  at  heart, — 
that  of  education  in  the  South.  He  is  accredited  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States  and  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education. 
I  am  sure  you  will  like  to  aid  him  in  his  great  and  unselfish  work. 

C.  O.  BOUTELLE,  U.  S.  C.  and  G.  Survey. 

From  U.  S.  Commissioner,  and  State  and  City  Superintendents  of 
Education. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 

BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION, 

WASHINGTON,  Oct.  20,  1880. 

Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  has  long  been  an  ardent  friend  and  wise  promoter 
of  popular  education.  Of  all  the  able  speakers  now  discussing  this  sub- 
ject, he  is  one  of  the  most  effective  in  arousing  public  attention  to  its 
importance.  He  is  always  entertaining  and  instructive. 

JOHN  EATON,  Commissioner. 

The  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  is  a  sincere  and  devoted  friend  of  popular  edu- 
cation, and  an  earnest  and  effective  advocate  of  the  cause  he  has  so 
much  at  heart.  He  has  achieved  a  high  reputation  as  a  lecturer  on  edu- 
cational topics.  On  the  platform,  he  is  never  dry  or  dull.  His  style  is 
remarkable  for  its  vivacity.  He  has  the  happy  faculty  of  adapting  his 


28 

discourses  both  to  teachers  and  popular  audiences.  He  is  an  honest 
man,  and  speaks  from  conviction.  He  deserves  special  credit  as  a  stal- 
wart advocate  of  the  most  liberal  provision  for  public  education. 

JOHN  D.  PHILBRICK,  Superintendent  Schools,  Boston,  Mass. 
OCT.  30, 1880. 

COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA, 

DEPARTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION, 

RICHMOND,  VA.,  Oct.  25,  1880. 

The  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  is  an  exceptionally  good  lecturer  on  education. 
He  always  entertains  while  he  instructs,  and  often  excites  enthusiasm. 
His  special  power  is  before  a  popular  audience,  or  in  giving  to  teachers 
liberal  views.  He  stands  up  boldly  for  the  New  Education. 

W.  H.  RUFFNER,  State  Superintendent,  Va. 

COMMONWEALTH  OF  PENNSYLVANIA, 

DEPARTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION, 

HARRISBURG,  Oct.  20,  1880. 

I  have  heard  Dr.  A.  D.  Mayo  on  the  platform  frequently,  and  consider 
him  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  interesting  educational  lecturers  in  the 
country. 

J.  P.  WICKERSHAM,  Superintendent  Public  Instruction. 

STATE  OF  RHODE  ISLAND, 

OFFICE  COMMISSIONER  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS, 

PROVIDENCE,  Oct.  23, 1880. 
REV.  A.  D.  MAYO  : 

Dear  Sir, —  I  am  very  glad  to  learn  that  your  pen  and  voice  are  now 
both  fully  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  education.  I  know  of  no  one  better 
calculated  to  do  effective  work  with  either  agency.  Whenever  you  have 
met  and  addressed  our  people,  they  have  been  more  than  pleased ;  and  I 
have  every  reason  to  believe  that  permanent  results  have  been  secured, 
through  your  efforts,  in  every  instance. 
We  shall  certainly  call  upon  you  again. 

With  best  wishes  for  a  constantly  increasing  field  of  labor  in  the 
good  cause,  I  am  very  truly  yours, 

THOMAS  B.  STOCKWELL,  Commissioner  Public  Schools. 

OFFICE  OF  THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION, 

BALTIMORE,  MD.,  Oct.  20,  1880. 

My  dear  Sir, —  I  cannot  deny  myself  the  gratification  of  thanking  you 
explicitly  for  the  series  of  lectures  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing 
you  deliver  at  the  University  of  Virginia  last  summer,  to  the  Teachers' 
Institute,  then  under  my  charge,  and  to  the  large  audience  of  cultivated 
persons  who  gladly  embraced  the  opportunity  of  being  present.  For 


29 

appropriateness  of  subject,  beauty  of  style,  clearness  of  thought  and 
general  effectiveness,  your  lectures  are  not  surpassed  by  any  to  which  I 
have  ever  listened  on  similar  themes. 

Yours  very  truly, 

M.  A.  NEWELL, 

Superintendent  Public  Instruction. 

STATE  OF  CONNECTICUT, 

OFFICE  OF  SECRETARY  OF  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION, 

STATE  HOUSE,  HARTFORD,  Oct.  27,  1880. 

Few  clergymen  in  America  have  devoted  so  much  time  and  thought 
and  heart  to  the  great  questions  of  popular  education  as  Dr.  Mayo.  He 
is  a  vigorous  writer,  an  impressive  speaker,  and  has  that  tact  and  quick 
perception  that  enable  him  to  happily  adapt  his  addresses  to  the  practi- 
cal wants  of  the  company  or  locality  he  is  called  to  address.  His  ample 
resources  are  drawn  from  wide  and  varied  studies  and  experience.  I  can 
cordially  recommend  him  to  those  who  are  seeking  valuable  and  practi- 
cal lecturers  for  Teachers'  Institutes  and  educational  gatherings,  a  ser- 
vice in  which  he  has  been  long  and  most  successfully  engaged. 

B.  G.  NORTHBOP,  Secretary  Connecticut  Board  of  Education. 

IN  THE  SERVICE  OF  THE 

COMMONWEALTH  OF  MASSACHUSETTS, 

STATE  LIBRARY  AND  OFFICE  OF 

SECRETARY  OF  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION, 

STATE  HOUSE,  BOSTON,  Dec.  13,  1880. 

Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  has  been  employed  for  the  last  three  or  four  years  by 
the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education  as  a  lecturer  before  the  State 
Teachers'  Institutes.  He  is  considered  to  be  an  able  writer  and  lecturer 
on  educational  subjects.  I  most  cheerfully  recommend  Mr.  Mayo  to  any 
who  may  desire  the  services  of  an  able  educator. 

J.  W.  DICKINSON,  Secretary  of  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  EDUCATION, 

AUSTIN,  TEX.,  May  18,  1889. 
REV.  A.  D.  MAYO: 

Dear  Sir, —  At  the  close  of  your  labors  in  Texas,  which  have  extended 
from  the  middle  of  January  to  the  middle  of  May,  I  deem  it  proper  to 
give  you  my  impression  of  the  value  and  effect  of  the  work  which  you 
have  done  in  this  State. 

You  have  visited  all  sections  of  the  State,  delivered  about  one  hun- 
dred addresses  on  popular  education,  visited  all  of  the  State  educational 
institu.  ions,  met  and  conversed  with  a  large  number  of  the  leading  men 
of  the  State,  by  whom  public  opinion  on  educational  subjects  is  formed 
and  directed. 


30 

I  am  deeply  impressed  with  the  value  of  the  work  which  has  been  done 
by  you  in  strengthening  and  broadening  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  public 
education  in  this  State.  The  expressions  which  have  reached  me  from 
the  places  which  you  have  visited  and  from  the  institutions  which  you 
have  addressed  are  well  summarized  by  a  remark  of  the  superintendent 
of  the  city  schools  of  Dallas,  who  says  that  "  he  feels  himself  a  stronger 
man,  intellectually  and  educationally,  for  the  work  that  you  have  done  in 
that  city."  The  superintendent  of  another  of  our  largest  cities  assures 
me  that  the  attendance  of  the  children  in  the  colored  schools  of  the  city 
has  been  materially  affected  by  the  address  delivered  there  to  the  colored 
people. 

I  am  so  strongly  impressed  with  the  value  of  your  work  in  this  State 
that  I  venture  to  ask  that  you  will  repeat  your  visit  next  year,  if  it  shall 
be  practicable  for  you  to  do  so,  as  I  feel  assured  that  your  work,  next 
year,  will  be  more  effective  than  it  has  been  this  year.  Your  study  of 
our  educational  condition  will  enable  you  to  direct  the  discussion  of 
educational  themes  more  closely  to  the  defects  of  our  system,  which 
are  felt  more  and  more  by  the  friends  of  public  education  in  this 
State  with  each  year. 

With  assurances  of  highest  respect  and  cordial  regard,  I  have  the 
honor  to  be, 

Very  truly  yours, 

OSCAR  H.  COOPER, 
State  Superintendent  Public  Instruction. 

BATON  ROUGE,  LA.,  March  11,  1884. 

Dear  Sir, —  Permit  me  to  introduce  to  you  Dr.  A.  D.  Mayo,  of  whose 
useful  and  benevolent  work  in  the  cause  of  education  in  New  Orleans 
and  throughout  the  entire  South  you  have  been  kept  advised  through 
the  public  prints.  I  commend  him  to  your  well-known  and  generous 
hospitality. 

With  much  regard,  sincerely  yours, 

W.  H.  GOODALE. 


SERVICES    IN    CHURCHES    AND    SUNDAY-SCHOOLS,   AND 
MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   ADDRESSES. 

One  of  the  most  effective  features  of  our  Ministry  of  Educa- 
tion is  that  portion  indicated  by  the  word  —  "Ministry."  From 
the  first,  it  has  been  evident  to  us  that  any  largely  effective  mis- 
sion in  behalf  of  education  in  the  South  must  deal  in  the  most 
thorough  and  persistent  way.  with  that  fundamental  character- 
training  without  which  education  is  a  house  built  on  a  shifting 
sand-reef  assailed  by  a  stormy  sea. 

The  peculiar  condition  of  Southern  society  emphasizes  this 
fact.  Without  admitting  the  reckless  and  uncharitable  impeach- 
ment of  the  colored  population  as  hopelessly  immoral,  the  most 
hopeful  friends  of  this  race  know  too  well  that  the  permanent 
structure  of  good  citizenship  for  the  seven  millions  of  their  peo- 
ple must  be  laid  in  the  common  virtues  that  underlie  the  home, 
industrial,  social,  and  civil  life.  And,  with  all  allowance  for  sec- 
tional, sectarian,  partisan,  and  ignorant  exaggeration  in  the 
North,  every  thoughtful  Southern  educator  understands  how 
much  is  to  be  done  in  the  training  of  large  numbers  of  its  lower 
white  people  in  the  virtues  of  a  peaceful,  tolerant,  and  progress- 
ive civilization. 

The  evil  of  youthful  vagrancy  is  one  of  the  most  serious  perils 
of  the  South,  and  must  be  taken  in  hand  erelong.  The  favor- 
able elements  of  the  problem  are  the  strong  tendencies  to  relig- 
ious sentiment  and  church  observance  among  all  classes  of  the 
people. 

With  these  facts  in  mind,  we  have  aimed  to  make  character- 
training  and  the  most  generous  moral  and  religious  development 
the  key-note  of  our  Ministry.  The  work  is  not  a  lectureship,  or, 
in  any  technical  sense,  educational  in  its  relation  to  schools ; 
although  including  a  great  deal  in  the  line  of  pedagogic  discourse 
to  teachers.  The  larger  half  of  our  public  talk  is  to  children  of 
all  ages,  and  students  in  every  variety  of  educational  establish- 
ment. Here  is  the  most  attractive  field  of  labor  among  both 


32 

races  and  all  classes ;  and,  without  trenching  on  properly  theo. 
logical  or  ecclesiastical  ground,  the  burden  of  our  instruction  is 
in  that  broad  region  where  religion  and  morals  are  the  soul  of 
all  worthy  living  and  all  exalted  patriotism.  One  of  the  most 
encouraging  features  of  our  work  is  the  hearty  sympathy  with 
our  Ministry  among  the  clergy  and  most  influential  laity  of  all 
denominations,  including  the  Hebrew  faith.  It  is  rarely  the  case 
that  we  are  not  invited  to  occupy  a  pulpit  for  a  Sunday  dis- 
course; and  frequently  the  clergy  unite  to  give  us  a  larger 
hearing. 

The  Sunday-school  has  always  an  open  door.  In  this  way,  the 
Sunday  often  becomes  the  best  occasion  of  our  visit,  with  oppor- 
tunity to  reach  numbers  in  public  address  who  are  unable  to  at- 
tend a  week-day  lecture.  Every  denomination  of  Christians, 
whose  custom  permits  the  invitation  of  clergy  outside  their  own 
priesthood,  has  extended  these  courtesies.  The  Hebrew  Syna- 
gogue and  Temple  are  hospitable.  The  colored  folk  are  always 
ready  for  another  sermon,  especially  bearing  on  the  duties  and 
opportunities  of  their  new  life  and  the  training  of  children.  It 
is  with  great  pleasure  that,  here,  we  can  make  this  acknowledg- 
ment, in  which  should  be  included  many  churches  in  the  North 
and  the  religious  press  of  all  sections.  We  regard  our  present 
occupation  not  as  a  giving-up  of  the  Ministry  to  Education,  but 
as  a  natural  expansion  of  a  parish  ministry  of  many  years  into 
the  larger  opportunity  of  the  "  evangelist,"  or  missionary  in  be- 
half of  the  moral,  religious,  mental,  and  industrial  training  of  the 
younger  third  of  the  American  people,  for  that  American  citizen- 
ship which  is,  to-day,  the  noblest  distinction  on  earth. 


THE    PRESS,    PUBLICATION,    EDITORSHIP,    AND    THE 

RECEPTION    OF   THE   MINISTRY    BY   LEADING 

JOURNALS    OF   THE   COUNTRY. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  work,  in  1880,  realizing  the  immense 
influence  of  the  press,  we  accepted  the  position  of  assistant  edi- 
tor of  the  New  England  and  National  Journal  of  Education 
(weekly),  published  in  Boston  and  Chicago  under  the  efficient 
management  of  Dr.  Thomas  W.  Bicknell.  For  six  years  this 
publication,  most  widely  read  at  home  and  abroad,  offered  a  large 
opportunity  of  communication  with  the  educational  public.  The 


33 

increasing  demands  of  our  Ministry  compelled  a  partial  retire- 
ment from  educational  journalism  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  year. 
But  the  call  for  the  written  word  has  not  abated.  Every  new 
year  affords  new  openings  through  the  general  press,  which, 
with  unprecedented  generosity,  has  opened  its  columns  to  reports 
of  lectures,  sermons,  school  talks,  interviews,  and  articles  in 
great  variety,  especially,  in  the  Northern  press,  setting  forth  our 
general  view  of  life  and  affairs  in  the  South.  To  these  articles, 
and  numerous  addresses  delivered  and  published,  we  are  largely 
indebted  for  the  hearty  expression  of  confidence  that  appears  in 
the  testimonials  of  Southern  educators  and  public  men.  The 
Southern  press,  from  the  first,  has  been  a  strong  right  hand  in 
city  and  country,  urging  the  claims  of  our  ministry,  either  in  • 
hearty  approval  of  our  views,  or,  with  rare  exception,  discussing 
points  of  difference  with  intelligent  courtesy.  With  some  not- 
able exceptions,  the  press  of  the  North  has  been  equally  generous 
and  appreciative  of  the  purpose  of  our  ministry.  Several  vol- 
umes of  letters  from  the  South,  elaborate  essays  and  reports  of 
discourses,  might  be  gathered  from  the  leading  journals  and  mag- 
azines of  the  North.  The  limits  of  this  pamphlet  will  not  per- 
mit even  a  selection  from  the  notices  of  our  work,  general  and 
local,  which  have  abounded  in  the  Southern  press  from  its  begin- 
ning. Of  the  pamphlets  published  and  largely  circulated,  we 
mention  —  "Building  for  the  Children  of  the  South"  and  "In- 
dustrial Education  in  the  South,"  published  and  widely  circu- 
lated by  the  National  Bureau  of  Education.  Others,  originally 
published  as  pamphlets  and  extensively  copied  by  the  news- 
papers, are :  "  The  South  at  School,"  "  National  Aid  to  Educa- 
tion," "  The  City  of  Washington  a  National  University,"  "  Last 
Words  from  the  South,"  "  The  South,  the  North,  and  the  Na- 
tion keeping  School,"  "  The  New  Education  in  the  New  South," 
"The  Normal  School  in  America,"  "Governor  Butler  and  the 
Schools  of  Massachusetts,"  "  The  Common  School  and  Common 
Morality,"  "  The  Academy,  Old  and  New,"  "  American  Brains  in 
American  Hands,"  "A  Southern  Graded  School,"  "  The  Educa- 
tional Situation  in  the  South,"  "  The  Training  of  the  Southern 
Teacher,"  "  The  New  Version  of  the  Children  in  the  Wood." 


84 


OUR  MINISTRY  TO  THE  COLORED  PEOPLE  OF  THE 

SOUTH. 

Our  first  visit  to  a  Southern  school,  in  May,  1880,  was  to  the 
celebrated  Hampton  Institute  for  colored  and  Indian  students, 
established  by  General  S.  C.  Armstrong,  at  Hampton,  Va.  In 
August  of  the  same  year,  we  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  be- 
fore the  State  Institute  for  colored  teachers,  at  Lynchburg,  Va. 
In  January,  1881,  the  first  visitation' of  our  first  extended  tour  in 
the  South-west  was  at  Berea  College,  Kentucky. 

In  1881-82,  we  visited  all  the  leading  schools  for  colored 
youth  established  by  the  American  Missionary  Association  (Con- 
gregational) and  the  Freedman's  Aid  Society  (Methodist)  in 
the  South,  under  an  arrangement  to  deliver  courses  of  lectures  on 
teaching,  inspect  and  report  on.  the  school  work,  and  do  whatever 
might  be  suggested  by  the  government  on  the  ground.  At  the 
same  time,  by  personal  invitation,  we  did  the  same  work  in  the 
colored  seminaries  established  by  other  religious  bodies,  private 
institutions,  State  schools,  etc.  In  this  way^at  the  beginning,  we 
were  able  to  come  into  the  most  familiar  and  helpful  relations 
with  one  of  the  most  important  systems  of  schools  in  the  Union ; 
—  a  group  of  possibly  a  hundred  institutions,  of  various  grades, 
in  the  South,  that  are  now  training  the  superior  colored  teachers 
for  that  section.  Educated  almost  exclusively  in  separate 
schools,  the  colored  people  naturally  wish  to  have  their  children 
taught  by  instructors  of  their  own  race. 

A  few  of  the  Southern  cities  still  insist  on  placing  white 
teachers  in  the  colored  public  schools,  although,  as  fast  as  these 
positions  can  be  filled  with  suitable  colored  teachers,  the  change 
invariably  comes.  No  body  of  young  people  in  any  country  has 
now  a  nobler  field  for  work,  sacrifice,  and  Christian  and  practical 
service  than  the  better  class  of  colored  teachers  in  the  South.  In 
the  public  schools,  city  and  country,  they  are  protected  by  the 
organization  of  the  system  against  the  personal,  local,  political, 
and  sectarian  contentions  that  still  work  so  much  mischief 
among  these  people.  They  are  regarded,  by  parents  and  teach- 
ers, with  a  respect  equal  to  the  Christian  ministry;  while  in 
education,  manners,  character,  and  general  resources,  they  far 


35 

excel  the  majority  of  the  colored  preachers.  The  young  women 
do  excellent  service,  and  many  become  experts,  especially  in  the 
primary  departments.  The  competent  colored  teacher  in  a 
Southern  community  occupies  a  unique  position, —  a  man  or 
woman  "  of  all  good  work,"  a  missionary  of  American  citizen- 
ship to  the  school  and  the  people,  with  the  best  opportunity 
for  representing  them  to  that  substantial  class  of  the  white 
population  pledged  to  the  education  of  the  colored  folk.  To 
have  been  in  constant  and  confidential  relations  with  such  a  body 
for  ten  years,  in  all  the  Southern  States  and  in  Washington,  has 
been  an  opportunity  rarely  enjoyed,  whose  importance  can  hardly 
be  overestimated.  Beside  this,  we  constantly  visit  the  public 
schools  of  the  colored  people,  give  instruction  to  their  teachers 
through  lectures,  talk  to  the  children  and  youth,  and,  wherever 
convenient,  speak  to  general  audiences.  These  addresses  are 
almost  invariably  in  their  churches,  in  connection  with  religious 
services,  and  are  rather  of  the  type  of  the  religious  lecture  than  a 
technical  educational  address.  In  all  this  work,  great  attention  is 
paid  to  the  important  subject  of  industrial  education,  in  which 
the  leading  school  public  of  the  South  is  now  deeply  interested. 
Especially  in  the  schools  for  colored  youth,  some  of  the  simpler 
forms  of  industrial  education  should  always  be  incorporated  ; 
while  their  higher  seminaries  are  still  doing  more  in  manual  train- 
ing than  similar  institutions  for  white  youth.  The  solution  of 
"  the  race  question,"  like  "  the  labor  question  "  in  the  North,  is 
largely  involved  in  the  progress  of  the  educational  movement, 
including  the  church,  Sunday-school,  temperance  reformation,  and 
all  efforts  at  the  general  elevation  of  the  masses. 

Southern  illiteracy,  like  the  same  thing  everywhere,  is  far  more 
than  ignorance  of  letters.  It  means  a  condition  compounded  of 
ignorance,  superstition,  shiftlessness,  vulgarity,  and  vice,  which 
involves  a  considerable  population  of  these  sixteen  American 
States  in  a  sort  of  semi-barbarism,  against  which  the  upper  re- 
gion of  society  struggles  with  all  the  force  of  desperate  con- 
viction, with  only  partial  success.  That  the  higher  civilization 
of  the  community  shall  lead  in  all  affairs;  educate,  direct,  and, 
if  necessary,  suppress  and  control  the  lower  elements ;  is  the 
commonplace  of  every  civilized  community. 


36 

The  only  peculiarity  of  the  South  is  the  temporary  power  of 
the  lower  element  in  a  transition  state  of  society.  That  so  few 
disorders  break  out  is  a  strong  tribute  to  the  firmness,  wisdom, 
and  forbearance  of  the  better  class  of  both  races.  The  tele- 
gram that  reports  an  "outrage,"  generally  originating  in  the 
lower  and  more  turbulent  classes  in  neighborhoods  away  from 
centres  of  population,  is  flashed  into  every  newspaper  office  in 
the  land,  and  read  at  every  breakfast-table ;  while  the  patient, 
continuous,  and  powerful  co-operation  of  the  better  sort  of  people, 
of  all  classes  and  both  races,  which  has  already  wrought  such  a 
mighty  change  in  Southern  life,  and  is  all  the  time  preventing 
disorder  and  educating  the  people  in  mutual  understanding,  for- 
bearance, and  appreciation,  goes  on  silently,  like  the  beneficent 
powers  of  nature,  rarely  noticed  by  the  press,  and  almost  un- 
known to  whole  classes  of  excellent  people  through  wide  reaches 
of  the  Union.  We  are  able  to  say  with  truth  that,  to  our  best 
knowledge,  our  labor  and  constant  association  with  the  colored 
people  has  been  no  bar  to  our  corresponding  work  in  other 
quarters.  Indeed,  it  has  been  gratifying  to  note  the  deep  inter- 
est, especially  of  the  foremost  public-school  people,  in  the  educa- 
tional progress  of  the  negro,  and  the  cheerful  co-operation  of 
school,  city,  and  State  authorities  in  this  part  of  our  work.  As 
an  expression  of  our  general  views  on  this  matter,  we  offer  a  pub- 
lic letter,  written  in  response  to  an  open  invitation  from  a  leading 
colored  citizen  of  Louisiana,  Mr.  T.  T.  Allain.  The  offer  made 
in  our  letter  was  heartily  accepted;  and  a  great  meeting  of 
colored  people,  attended  by  the  leading  white  citizens  of  the 
place,  was  held  at  Plaquemine,  Iberville  County. 

[From  the  New  Orleans  Picayune.'} 

TO    THE    COLORED   PEOPLE. 

DR.    MAYO    TALKS    TO    THEM   OF   EDUCATION. 

In  response  to  the  letter  of  T.  T.  Allain,  published  in  Sunday's 
Picayune,  concerning  the  education  of  colored  teachers,  Dr. 
Mayo  writes :  — 

NEW  ORLEANS,  March  20,  1886. 
MR.  THEOPHILE  T.  ALLAIN  : 

Dear  Sir, —  I  read  your  letter  with  deepest  interest,  because  it  is  in 
the  line  of  all  I  have  been  and  am  still  doing  in  the  South. 

You  judge  rightly  that  I  have  a  deep  interest  in  the  education  of  your 


37 

people;  and  by  education  I  mean  the  entire  mental,  moral,  and  indus- 
trial training  of  children  and  youth.  In  my  view,  all  classes  of  Ameri- 
can youth  need  this ;  and  I  speak  to  your  people,  not  as  freedmen,  but 
as  American  citizens,  everywhere,  urging  them  to  push  for  this  as  their 
one  hope  of  success.  For  thirty  years  in  the  North,  before  1865,  I 
labored  to  bring  freedom  to  your  people,  not  only  for  their  sake,  but 
because  I  was  sure  that  the  Union,  and  especially  the  South,  could  only 
survive  ou  the  basis  of  a  true  democracy  in  civil  affairs.  I  never 
expected  to  see  such  wondrous  changes  as  I  now  behold,  and  can  hardly 
believe  in  my  own  identity,  as  I  traverse  the  South,  everywhere  wel- 
comed by  the  best  people  of  "all  sorts  and  conditions,"  my  message  of 
universal  education  always  received  with  as  great  attention  and  respect 
as  in  any  portion  of  the  country. 

In  Louisiana,  I  have  been  doing  for  the  past  five  years  just  what  you 
suggest.  My  first  visit  to  your  State,  five  years  ago,  was  almost 
entirely  occupied  by  work  on  just  the  lines  you  indicate,  in  the  colored 
schools  and  churches  of  New  Orleans.  It  is  significant  that  every  lect- 
ure I  have  given  to  audiences  of  white  people  this  year  in  Louisiana  was 
first  delivered  in  the  schools  and  churches  of  your  people  in  New 
Orleans;  and  they  seem  equally  to  suit  my  hearers  in  every  locality. 
I  helped  ordain  one  of  the  presidents  of  these  schools  in  New  York,  and 
have  never  slackened  in  my  interest  and  labors  in  your  behalf. 

Within  the  past  month,  I  have  addressed  half-a-dozen  large  and 
attentive  audiences  between  New  Orleans  and  Shreveport.  In  April, 
I  may  be  in  your  parish;  and  any  reasonable  invitation  within  my 
overtaxed  strength  to  speak  to  your  people  will  be  responded  to.  And 
I  should  say,  also,  that  all  I  can  do  in  this  way  is  with  the  heartiest 
encouragement  of  the  whole  educational  public  of  Louisiana,  as  I  every- 
where come  in  contact  with  it. 

You  seem  to  me  to  have  "  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  "  in  your  urgent 
desire  for  the  normal  and  industrial  training  of  your  superior  young 
people. 

The  great  lever  to  raise  up  any  class  of  the  American  people  is  the 
common  school,  taught  by  trained  teachers,  who  will  also  enforce  the 
idea  by  precept  and  example  that  intelligent  labor — education  in 
the  fingers  —  can  alone  rescue  the  working  masses  from  all  the  evils 
that  now  beset  them. 

Ignorance  and  whiskey  are  the  twin  demons  that  scourge  your  people  ; 
and  the  common  school  and  the  temperance  reform  are  the  twin  angels 
that  will  lead  them  out  of  the  most  fearful  bondage  that  can  afflict  hu- 
manity. 

These  agencies,  persistently  worked,  cannot  fail,  in  time,  to  do  every- 
thing that  can  be  done  for  your  own  as  for  every  class  of  our  people. 


38 

I  would  say  that  at  present  the  opportunities  for  training  common- 
school  teachers  in  Louisiana  are  really  better  for  your  own  than  for  the 
white  people.  The  three  colleges  in  New  Orleans  are  good  normal 
schools ;  and,  though  not  free,  your  young  people  can  be  carried  through 
them  more  cheaply  than  the  white  youth  at  the  State  Normal  at  Natchi- 
toclies.  I  find  in  these  schools  graduates  of  our  best  Northern  normals 
as  teachers.  If  your  people  could  aid  young  men  and  women  to  come 
to  these  schools,  it  would  be  a  great  help.  As  fast  as  possible,  these 
schools  are  including  industrial  training.  The  State  school  you  speak 
of  in  New  Orleans  should  certainly  have  a  strong  industrial  and  normal 
department,  if  it  has  not  now ;  and  I  am  confident  that  the  petition  of 
a  strong  body  of  your  representative  people  to  the  State  authorities 
urging  this  development  would  receive  attention.  I  am  told  that  your 
teachers  also  attend  the  institutes  held  by  the  State  Board.  The  public 
school  in  Louisiana,  out  of  New  Orleans,  has  been  greatly  hindered  for 
all  children ;  but  there  seems  to  me  a  better  day  coming  for  it. 

Permit  me  to  suggest  what  seems  to  me,  after  six  years'  observation  in 
every  Southern  State,  the  true  educational  policy  for  your  people. 

1.  Close  up,  solid,  on  a  common  school,  with  good  teachers  and  as 
much  of  industrial  work,  especially  for  girls,  as  can  be  combined  within 
it.     Insist  upon  that  everywhere.     Discourage  the  private  and  sectarian 
school  movement,   which  so  often  destroys  the  public   schools.     Urge 
the  people  to  pay  the  poll-tax :  and,  when  public  money  is  exhausted, 
combine  to  keep  the  school  going,  if  possible,  free  to  all.     In  great 
numbers  of  localities,  if  your  people  would  thus  combine,  they  could 
have  a  good  public  school,  instead  of  dispersing  their  means,  as  too 
often  now,  with  general  dissatisfaction. 

2.  Urge  your  young  people  to  begin  education  at  the  bottom  instead 
of  the  top.     There  is  no  reason  why  your  young  men  arid  women  should 
not  take  the  higher  education  when  they  get  to  it ;  but  nobody  can  safely 
neglect  foundations  in  building  for   the  mind.     Urge   the  matter  of  a 
sound  elementary  education,  with  industrial  elements  everywhere.     This 
will  create  a  soil  out  of  which  the  big  trees  will  grow  naturally  in  due 
time. 

3.  Urge  your  young  people,  while  they  can,  to  take  up  mechanical,  oper- 
ative, and  general  work  of  this  sort,  that  they  may  be  ready  to  answer 
the  great  demand  in  this  direction  that  is  coming  from  the  South.     The 
native  Southern  white  people,  I  believe,  as  a  body,  will  welcome  the 
entrance  of  your  people  on  this  wide  field  of  labor;  and  I  can  see  no 
reason  why  workmen  should  be  imported  from  Europe  to  do  what  your 
own  superior  young  folks  can  be  trained  to  do  as  well. 

4.  Concentration  of  means  on  definite  ends  is  the  soul  of  success  in 
the  upper  side  of  life.     It  was  probably  a  century  before  the  people  of 


39 

Massachusetts  stood  on  $30,000,000,  as  you  people,  after  fifteen  years  of 
free  labor,  stand  in  Louisiana  to-day.  The  fame  of  Massachusetts  in 
education  and  kindred  departments  is  owing  to  the  early  habit  of  saving 
from  the  lower  to  spend  on  the  higher  side  of  life.  Your  people  can  do 
great  things,  now,  by  the  same  simple  method;  and  I  know  of  no 
decent  class  of  folk,  anywhere,  who  will  not  rejoice  to  see  them  do  it. 

Finally,  I  think  I  understand  fully  all  the  disabilities  of  your  people 
in  the  Southern  States.  But  I  also  realize  that,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  no  people  ever  achieved  so  much,  in  three  centuries  out  of  barbar- 
ism, as  your  own.  You  have  the  sympathy,  the  prayers,  and  the 
material  aid  of  Christendom  in  every  worthy  effort  to  fill  an  honorable 
place  in  the  industrial,  mental,  and  moral  upbuilding  of  the  South. 
I  see  no  bar  against  your  final  success  that  you  cannot  remove,  in  the 
same  way  that  every  set  of  people  in  American  society  is  compelled  to 
succeed.  All  the  higher  elements  of  Southern  society  are  with  you  in 
this  effort,  and  will  combine  with  you  in  the  gradual  suppression  of 
injustice,  prejudice,  and  obstruction  in  the  lower  regions  of  every  com- 
munity. I  always  feel  like  congratulating  the  superior  class  of  your 
people ;  for  I  believe  no  class  in  Christendom,  to-day,  has  before  it  a 
grander  mission  than  to  work  in  the  spirit  of  the  Divine  Master  for  the 
uplifting  of  the  ignorant,  the  poor,  the  lowly,  and  the  sinful,  in  the 
glorious  mission  of  bringing  the  seven  millions  of  colored  American  citi- 
zens to  their  own  providential  position  in  American  life.  And,  although 
"  neither  a  prophet  nor  the  son  of  a  prophet,"  I  venture  to  predict  that 
in  due  time  this  will  be  done.  When  I  go  to  Charleston,  S.C.,  my 
friend,  Mayor  Courtenay,  first  takes  me  to  your  great  free  school  as  one 
of  the  things  which  this,  the  proudest  old  Southern  city,  shows  to  its 
visitors  with  honest  pride.  Your  children  and  mine,  I  believe,  will  see 
the  day  when  the  whole  Southern  people  will  boast  of  their  colored 
citizens  as  one  of  the  most  valuable  elements  in  the  civilization  of  the 
South  and  the  Republic. 

I  would  urge  your  people  now,  everywhere,  to  send  petitions  to  the 
House  of  Representatives  at  Washington  for  the  passage  of  the  Blair 
bill  for  National  Aid.  That  bill  secures  full  justice  to  your  people,  and 
is  supported  by  a  large  majority  of  the  Southern  Senatorial  delegation. 
A  general  movement  from  your  side  of  the  House,  in  its  favor,  might 
greatly  help  to  its  passage.  So  far,  the  nation  and  the  people  of  the 
North  have  contributed,  within  the  past  twenty-five  years,  not  less  than 
$25,000,000  for  Southern  education, —  chiefly  for  the  colored  people. 
The  Slater  fund  is  the  last  of  these  gifts,  and  I  doubt  not  a  portion  of 
this  can  be  secured  for  some  of  the  schools  of  your  people  in  Louisiana. 

Truly  yours, 

A.  D.  MAYO. 


40 


[Testimonial  from  Dr.  William  T.  Harris,  Present  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Education."] 

DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 
BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION, 

WASHINGTON,  B.C.,  Sept.  30,  1889. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  say  that  I  have  known  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo 
for  more  than  twenty  yearS,  as  a  friend  of  common-school  education  and 
a  laborer  in  its  cause.  In  all  iny  experience,  I  have  never  known  any 
one  able  to  set  forth  the  true  place  and  the  function  of  the  common- 
school  system  in  our  civilization  so  effectually  as  Dr.  Mayo.  His  lect- 
ures have  been  very  fruitful  in  creating  and  inspiring  a  healthy  public 
opinion  on  the  subject  of  education,  and  I  have  called  him  the  fittest 
man  as  "  missionary  at  large  "  of  education.  It  is  my  sincere  hope  that 
he  may  consent  to  continue  in  this  field  of  work,  and  that  he  may 
be  generously  supported  and  encouraged  by  those  who  have  the  best 
interests  of  this  country  at  heart. 

W.  T.  HARRIS. 

With  this  testimonial  of  the  distinguished,  recently  appointed 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  this  "  little  book  "  of 
explanation  and  illustration  of  our  Ministry  of  Education  comes 
to  an  end.  If  too  long  for  those  who  from  the  first  have  under- 
stood and  generously  favored  the  work,  or  apparently  too  eulo- 
gistic in  its  presentation  of  testimonials,  we  can  only  plead  the 
natural  desire  to  be  relieved  from  the  perpetual  demand  for 
explanation  and  incessant  display  of  letters  of  introduction, 
familiar  to  every  one  engaged  in  a  similar  work.  Space  alone 
forbids  the  publication,  to  much  greater  length,  of  newspaper 
notices  which  represent  the  response  of  communities  to  which 
the  Ministry  has  come.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  in  this  record 
we  have  purposely  omitted  the  shadow-side,  from  which  no  man 
or  work  of  any  real  value  is  exempt.  It  would  be  easy  enough 
to  fill  pages  with  the  record  of  difficulties  met  and  overcome,  in- 
credulity at  home,  and  suspicion  now  and  then  in  our  field  of 
labor;  the  varied  trials,  disappointments,  rebuffs,  and  humilia- 
tions to  be  faced  every  new  year  by  one  who  depends  on  the 
liberality  and,  to  a  considerable  extent,  the  intelligence  of  a  volun- 
tary support ;  at  times,  an  open,  violent,  or  contemptuous  assault 
from  sources  where  charity  would  be  glad  to  plead  misapprehen- 


41 

sion  and  misinformation  in  the  assailants.  Of  course,  all  these 
things  are  familiar  to  every  earnest  and  progressive  worker  in 
that  central  domain  of  universal  education  from  which,  as  from 
the  grand  hall  of  the  house,  a  door  opens  into  every  department 
of  human  society.  We  hint  at  this  with  the  view  of  bearing 
testimony  to  the  fact  that  the  difficulties  and  trials  of  our  min- 
istry have  not  been  chiefly  in  the  South,  but  rather  from  the 
inevitable  collision  of  our  conclusions  concerning  this  portion  of 
the  country,  after  long  and  careful  observation,  with  theories, 
honestly  held,  but  founded  on  partial  knowledge,  often  magnified 
by  political  partisanship  and  sectarian  animosity. 

Nobody  has  been  in  a  situation  to  "  spy  out  the  nakedness  of 
the  land"  more  effectually  than  ourself,  in  these  ten  years,  living 
among  the  Southern  people  in  friendly  and  close  observation  of 
all  developments,  social,  industrial,  religious,  and  political.  If, 
at  the  end  of  this  interesting  experience,  we  can  speak  with 
growing  confidence  and  rational  hopefulness  of  the  steady  prog- 
ress of  all  these  sixteen  commonwealths,  and  the  entire  section 
once  known  as  the  South,  in  all  the  characteristic  elements  of 
American  civilization,  it  is  because,  on  the  ground,  in  sight  of 
both  the  encouraging  and  discouraging  features  of  the  situation, 
the  balance  more  decisively  every  year  inclines  to  the  former. 
No  well-informed  and  unprejudiced  observer  can  fail  to  see  the 
present  defects  and  perils  of  the  Southern  situation.  Every  State 
in  the  Union  contains  a  resolute  body  of  people  who,  often  with 
good  intentions,  are  none  the  less  working  with  all  their  might 
against  American  ideas.  And,  unhappily,  this  body  is  too  often 
made  the  "  blind  "  behind  which  the  forces  of  human  selfishness, 
in  all  its  hideous  developments,  are  marshalled  for  the  never- 
ending  assault  on  the  higher  Christian  civilization.  The  safety 
of  every  community  consists,  not  in  the  absence  of  both  these 
elements,  but  in  the  growing  resolution,  vitality,  intelligence,  and 
consecration  of  that  other  portion  of  society  which  is  resolved 
"that  the  Republic  shall  receive  no  harm."  And  "the  hiding- 
place  of  power"  for  this  party  of  progress  is  always  found  in  the 
reserve  of  righteousness  and  wisdom  in  thousands  of  people, 
hardly  known  or  noticed,  until  a  crisis  unmasks  the  real  forces  of 
society,  and  strikes  dumb  and  dead  every  revolt  against  the  wel- 
fare of  the  State.  Here  is  the  standing  argument  for  universal 


42 

education  in  its  broadest  sense ;  —  the  training  of  the  head,  the 
hand,  and  the  heart  of  every  new  generation  according  to  the 
best  methods  which  represent  the  accumulated  educational  expe- 
rience of  mankind.  A  generation  so  trained  can  be  trusted  to 
come  to  the  front  in  any  day  of  peril,  and  make  impossible  any 
serious  reaction  in  social,  religious,  industrial,  or  civic  life. 

The  result  of  all  our  labors  and  observations  in  this  field  may 
be  summed  up  in  this  conclusion.  First ;  the  educational  public 
of  the  South,  in  every  community,  is  the  party  of  progress  in  all 
the  elements  of  a  true  American  civilization,  is  everywhere  be- 
coming more  powerful  and  influential,  and,  in  view  of  its  environ- 
ment, not  surpassed  in  our  own  or  any  country  in  the  qualities 
which  everywhere  insure  success.  Second  ;  the  educational  insti- 
tutions of  the  South,  including  the  common  school,  are  as  cer- 
tainly in  the  hands  of  the  educational  public  as  in  the  North. 
There  is  no  essential  difference  in  the  organization,  aims,  courses 
of  study,  methods  of  discipline  and  instruction,  the  character  and 
devotion  of  teachers,  between  the  school  life  of  the  South  and 
the  North.  All  apparent  differences  are  explained  by  the  recent 
establishment  and  experimental  condition,  not  only  of  the  new 
public,  but  of  great  numbers  of  the  restored  or  newly  established 
private  and  collegiate  schools.  The  separation  of  the  races  in 
education  seems,  at  present,  inevitable,  and,  on  fair  investigation, 
appears  in  many  ways  more  favorable  to  the  mass  of  colored  chil- 
dren than  any  system  now  possible  to  enlist  general  support. 
Third ;  with  all  the  disadvantages,  failures,  and  discouragements 
of  the  past  twenty  years,  the  new  education  has  done  more  for 
the  building  up  of  the  South,  in  all  her  permanent  interests,  than 
any,  perhaps  all,  other  influences  combined.  The  man  who  says 
that  any  portion  of  her  people  has  not  been  greatly  helped  in 
all  the  elements  of  good  citizenship  by  the  educational  training 
it  has  already  been  able  to  obtain,  either  does  not  know  the 
situation  or  is  misled  by  prejudices  or  theories  which  prevent  his 
fair  estimate  of  the  facts.  We  believe  so  much  has  been  accom- 
plished, already,  that  the  conservative  and  patriotic  public  opin- 
ion of  every  State  can  be  relied  on  in  any  emergency  that  may 
be  precipitated  in  the  interest  of  any  reactionary  policy  or  not- 
able injustice.  And  never  was  the  conviction  so  strong  among 
all  thoughtful  Southern  people  that  the  great  lines  of  progress 


43 

are  in  the  more  complete  development  of  the  forces  of  universal 
education  as  to-day. 

It  is  because  we  hold  fast  the  faith  that  Universal  Education, 
broadly  conceived  and  thoroughly  and  persistently  applied,  is  the 
saving  power  of  the  American  State  and  the  assurance  of  the 
indivisible  Republic  that  we  rejoice  to  labor  with  the  noble  men 
and  women  enlisted  in  this  warfare,  and,  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  summon  every  good  citizen  to  his  post  and  insist  on  the 
obligation  of  family,  church,  township,  county,  city,  common- 
wealth, and  Nation  to  co-operate  in  training  the  younger  third 
of  the  American  people  for  God's  reserve  in  the  years  to  come. 


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STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


A     000  902  921 6 


